S.K. Pankaj1, C. Bueno-Ferrer1, N.N. Misra1, L. O’Neill2, A. Jiménez3, P. Bourke1, P.J. Cullen1,4,*
Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.2, No.1, pp. 77-84, 2014, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2013.634129
Abstract The effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment on zein fi lm containing thymol as an active
ingredient were evaluated. The plasma discharge was optically characterized to identify the reactive species.
A signifi cant increase in the fi lm roughness (p < 0.05) was observed due to the etching effect of DBD plasma,
which was correlated with the increase in the diffusion rate of thymol in the food simulant. The diffusion of
thymol from the zein fi lm was measured in aqueous solution. The kinetics of thymol release followed the
Fick’s law of diffusion as More >