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The barrier performance of multilayer polymeric films for food applications has been significantly improved by incorporating oxygen scavenging materials. The scavenging activity depends on parameters such as diffusion coefficient, solubility, concentration of scavenger loaded and the number of available reactive sites. These parameters influence the barrier performance of the film in different ways. Virtualization of the process is useful to characterize, design and optimize the barrier performance based on physical configuration of the films. Also, the knowledge of values of parameters is important to predict the performances. Inverse modeling and sensitivity analysis are sole way to find reasonable values of poorly defined, unmeasured parameters and to analyze the most influencing parameters. Thus, the objective of this work was to develop a model to predict barrier properties of multilayer film incorporated with reactive layers and to analyze and characterize their performances. Polymeric film based on three layers of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), with a core reactive layer, at different thickness configurations was considered in the model. A one dimensional diffusion equation with reaction was solved numerically to predict the concentration of oxygen diffused into the polymer taking into account the reactive ability of the core layer. The model was solved using commercial software for different film layer configurations and sensitivity analysis based on inverse modeling was carried out to understand the effect of physical parameters. The results have shown that the use of sensitivity analysis can provide physical understanding of the parameters which highly affect the gas permeation into the film. Solubility and the number of available reactive sites were the factors mainly influencing the barrier performance of three layered polymeric film. Multilayer films slightly modified the steady transport properties in comparison to net PET, giving a small reduction in the permeability and oxygen transfer rate values. Scavenging capacity of the multilayer film increased linearly with the increase of the reactive layer thickness and the oxygen absorption reaction at short times decreased proportionally with the thickness of the external PET layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preliminary study on bi-layer virgin/contaminated polypropylene co-extruded films was performed in order to evaluate the possibility to realize an effective functional barrier in PP-based multi-layer systems. In particular, the specific migration in 10% v/v aqueous ethanol of two surrogate contaminants (phenyl-cyclohexane and benzophenone) contained in the contaminated layer across the PP functional barrier was measured at different times and the results were compared with those obtained from a contaminated mono-layer polypropylene film. Moreover, the thermal and mechanical performances of the produced films were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the increasing use of plastics, stringent environmental issues and the awareness of the progressive reduction of available petrochemical resources have ever more guided the research interest towards the investigation and development of innovative materials intrinsically biodegradable or derived from renewable sources, and generally known as bio-based polymers. Amongst the biobased and biodegradable polymers, many investigations were reported in literature about a family of polyesters known as poly(hydroxyalkanoate)s (PHAs), one of whose most prevalent is poly(3- hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV). In this context, here we report the results of a photo-degradation study performed on biodegradable blown film samples based on a commercial grade PHBV/PBAT formulation. The films, subjected to photo-oxidative weathering in a climatic chamber under UV exposure, were systematically analysed in order to check the chemico-physical changes induced by the aging protocol, taking the as-produced films as the reference materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work deals on the possibility to improve performances of PLA-based nanocomposite films, for packaging applications, through conveniently tuning materials and processing conditions in melt compounding technology. In particular, two types of polylactic acid and different types of filler selected from montmorillonites and bentonites families were used to prepare the hybrid systems by using a twin-screw extruder. The effect of biaxial drawing on morphology and properties of the nanocomposites, produced by film blowing, was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we report on the preparation and characterization of a biodegradable active PLA film (aPLA), intended for food packaging applications. The film was obtained by cast extrusion blending a commercial PLA matrix with an active system, developed in our laboratory and based on PLA microparticles containing a-tocopherol (aTCP) as natural antioxidant agent. In order to optimize the film composition and processing, the active microparticles were preliminarily characterized with the aim to evaluate their morphology (size and shape), thermal resistance and a-tocopherol content. The aPLA film, produced with a 5wt% of aTCP, was characterized in terms of performance and activity. The experimental results demonstrated that the aPLA film has mechanical, thermal, barrier and optical properties adequate for packaging applications and shows oxygen scavenging activity and prolonged exhaustion lag time, compared to pure PLA films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]