journal article·2024-08-23Open access

Investigation and Comparison of Alternative Oxygen Barrier Coatings for Flexible PP Films as Food Packaging Material

Farshad Sharbafian, Katharina Tosic, Romana Schmiedt, Martin Novak, Michael Krainz, Bernhard Rainer, Silvia Apprich

Coatings· Volume 14· Issue 9

Abstract

One of the EU’s ambitious goals is to ensure all plastic packaging is reusable or recyclable by 2030. However, achieving higher recycling rates, particularly in flexible multilayer food packaging, is challenging due to the combination of diverse materials. This highlights the importance of designing for recyclability and exploring alternative barrier solutions. In this study, several types of coatings, such as ORMOCER® (Fraunhofer-ISC, Würzburg, Germany) Michem® Flex B3513 (Michelman International Belgium SRL, Aubange, Belgium), and PVOH (Kuraray Europe GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany), are applied on different polypropylene substrates, including cast PP (CPP70), SiOx, and AlOx-coated PP films. The effect of double coating and optimized curing conditions of ORMOCER® on the oxygen permeability of CPP70 was also investigated. The results showed significant improvements in the barrier properties of PP/SiOx and OPP/AlOx films, and OTR values less than 0.1 cm3/m2·d·bar were achieved. It was also found that ORMOCER® and Michem® Flex B3513 could enhance the oxygen barrier property of CPP70 and the OTR value reduced by a factor of 88 and 551, respectively.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Polymer Nanocomposite Synthesis and Irradiation · biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties · Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Applied Life Sciences, Institute of Packaging and Resource Management, FH Campus Wien, University of Applied Sciences, 1100 Vienna, Austria

OFI—Österreichisches Forschungsinstitut für Chemie und Technik, 1030 Vienna, Austria

Funding

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

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