Active nanocomposites based on carboxymethyl cellulose-chitosan-oleic acid (CMC-CH-OL) incorporatedwith different concentrations (0.5–2 wt.%) of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were produced by castingmethod. The effects of ZnO NPs on the morphological, mechanical, thermal, physical and antifungal prop-erties of the films were studied. New interaction between ZnO NPs and polymer matrix were confirmedby Fourier Transform infrared. After addition of ZnO NPs, tensile strength, lightness (L*) and thermalstability decreased however, elongation at break, contact angle, a* (greenness) and b* (yellowness) ofthe nanocomposite films increased in comparison to the films without nano-filler. UV transmittanceat 280 nm decreased from 17.3% to 0.2, 0.1 and 0.1 for the nanocomposite films containing 0.5, 1 and2 wt.% ZnO NPs, respectively, suggesting higher UV blocking properties. Disc diffusion test showed con-siderable antifungal properties of the active nanocomposite films against Aspergillus niger, especially inCMC-CH-OL-ZnO 2 wt.% by more than 40% fungal growth inhibition.
