Newly developed ultrathin heteroprotein film: better alternative to isolated protein films

What is the News?

Scientists have developed ultra-thin heteroprotein films that can revolutionize the food packaging and biomedical industries. 

What is a Thin Film?

A Thin Film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometre(monolayer) to several micrometres in thickness. 

Thin film deposition is the process of creating and depositing thin film coatings onto a substrate material. These coatings can be made of many different materials, from metals to oxides to compounds. 

Thin-film deposition is an important manufacturing step in the production of many opto-electronic, medical devices and products including consumer electronics, semiconductor lasers, LED displays, semiconductors, precision optics and medical implants. 

What have the scientists developed?

Scientists have developed ultra-thin heteroprotein films with excellent thermal, mechanical and pH stability. This can pave the way for expanding applications of thin films in the biomedical and food packaging industries. 

These films are much thinner as compared to the other protein or plastic films. They are soft and thin and have the advantage of being more flexible than the other films.

Source: The post is based on the article “Newly developed ultrathin heteroprotein film: better alternative to isolated protein films” published in PIB on 15th June 2022.