Photografting Coating: An Innovative Approach to “Non-Migratory” Active Packaging

The increasing trend of sustainability (single-use packaging), safety (fresh consumption), and convenience (processing and application) in packaging science has created a high demand for packaging materials with advanced functions. Thus, the challenges involved with conventional active packaging, for example, migration, low efficiency, upscaling difficulty, safety, and regulations should be addressed through an industrial scalable method, such as photografting coating. Photografting coating, which involves a strong surface covalent linkage, can be employed for preparing novel “non-migratory” active packaging systems with strong antimicrobial and self-cleaning, antifouling and self-defensive, metal chelating as antioxidant, free-radical scavenging as antioxidant, biocatalytic, and easy printing properties. Herein, profound insights into the technique of photografting coating are provided, with a focus on its application potential in non-migratory active packaging. The scientific explanation for the photografting coating technique and its application feasibility are illustrated to introduce its potential to confer new functions onto packaging materials. Furthermore, the recent progress, application functions, process, and safety challenges, as well as future directions of photografting coating in the preparation of non-migratory active packaging systems are explored in detail.