吹膜工艺对EVOH/纳米SiO2复合材料结构及性能的影响

采用熔融共混法制备了乙烯-乙烯醇共聚物（EVOH）/纳米SiO2复合材料,用不同的吹膜工艺对复合材料进行吹膜。通过偏光显微镜（POM）、差示扫描量热分析仪（DSC）、X射线衍射仪（XRD）测试对比了不同吹膜工艺制备的复合材料的结晶行为,并对复合材料的力学性能、阻隔性能和透明性进行了表征。研究发现,不同吹膜工艺改变了EV...     

Thermal,mechanical, and gas barrier properties of ethylene–vinyl alcohol copolymer‐based nanocomposites for food packaging films: Effects of nanoclay loading

For the application of single‐layer food packaging films with improved barrier properties, an attempt was made to prepare ethylene‐vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymer‐based nanocomposite films by incorporation of organically modified montmorillonite nanoclays via a two‐step mixing process and solvent cast method. The highly intercalated tactoids coexisted with exfoliated clay nanosheets, and the extent of intercalation and exfoliation depended significantly on the level of clay loadings, which were confirmed from both XRD measurements and TEM observations. It was revealed that the inclusion of nanoclay up to an appropriate level of content resulted in a remarkable enhancement in the thermal, mechanical (tensile strength/modulus), optical, and barrier properties of the prepared EVOH/clay nanocomposite films. However, excess clay loadings gave rise to a reduction in the tensile properties (strength/modulus/elongation) and optical transparency due to the formation of clay tactoids with a larger domain size. With the addition of only 3 wt % clay, the oxygen and water vapor barrier performances of the nanocomposite films were substantially improved by 59 and 90%, respectively, compared to the performances of the neat EVOH film. In addition, the presence of clay nanosheets in the EVOH matrix was found to significantly suppress the moisture‐derived deterioration in the oxygen barrier performance, implying the feasibility of applying the nanocomposite films to single‐layer food packaging films. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40289.     

A simple model for the interaction between water vapour and oxygen transmission in multilayer barrier materials intended for food packaging applications

The low oxygen permeability of the ethylene‐vinyl alcohol copolymer, EVOH, is outstanding, but is also known to be very sensitive to moisture uptake and cannot be used as a monolayer packaging material. In this paper, theory is presented in order to calculate the average water activity of the EVOH layer at steady state and the corresponding oxygen barrier for different multilayer structures using various polymer types and layer thicknesses. Multilayer materials can be designed for different food packaging applications and storage conditions, in order to keep the relative humidity of the barrier below recommended 75%, by varying the thickness of the outside versus the inside protective layers and/or varying the water vapour transmission rate of the outside versus the inside layer. The conclusion reached is that to retain the optimal barrier properties and thereby the optimal protection of the food, asymmetric multilayer structures are necessary. Copyright ©2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mathematical model to describe the release of an antimicrobial agent from an active package constituted by carvacrol in a hydrophilic EVOH coating on a PP film

Antimicrobial active packaging is a novel technology in which a chemical compound (or mixture) is purposely incorporated into a packaging material to be released into the food to protect it from deterioration. The effectiveness of an antimicrobial package is strongly related to the balance between the controlled release of the active compound and microbial growth kinetics. This work characterizes and models the release of carvacrol from an EVOH coating on a PP film which can be employed as an active packaging system. The kinetics and extent of carvacrol mass transport within the packaging components were fully characterized as a function of relative humidity. As expected, water uptake by the EVOH coating acts as a triggering mechanism for activity. The partition equilibrium for carvacrol in the complex film largely favors (10,000-fold) the EVOH layer in dry conditions, although in humid conditions the solubility in both polymers is very close (4-fold). Kinetically, the presence of humidity increases the value of D for carvacrol in EVOH from 3 · 10⁻¹⁹ m²/s in dry conditions to 3 · 10⁻¹⁵ m²/s in a wet environment.After the experimental characterization of carvacrol transport, the efficiency of the release of carvacrol was estimated with a novel mathematical model based on the finite element method and successfully compared with the evolution of carvacrol concentration in a real packaging system. The model developed can be employed in the optimization of package design in order to ensure the maintenance of a specific concentration of the active agent in the headspace, high enough to prevent potential growth of a particular foodborne spoiling or pathogenic microorganism on the preserved foodstuffs. This model could easily be extended to similar packaging systems as long as an inventory of experimental data for all the parameters and coefficients involved is available, sufficiently complete to fulfill all the mathematical requirements demanded by the model.