PERMEABILITY BEHAVIOUR OF A BIODEGRADABLE ORIENTED POLYPROPYLENE (OPP) FILM WITH EVA PROOXIDANT ADDITIVES FOR FOOD PACKAGING APPLICATION

Prooxidant additives represent at the moment a promising solution to the problem of environmental polymer waste. It accelerate the photo- and thermo-oxidation of the materials and consequently, going throw a polymer chain cleavage, render the materials more susceptible to biodegradation. The aim of this work was to test an EVA prooxidant additive into a Oriented Polypropylene polymer film used in the food packaging field, to understand the performance of the resulting material (degradation/stabilization). Barrier properties to O2 and CO2 gas where evaluated. The activation energies (E) of the permeation process were determined with the different gases used in the experiments. Metallised film (polymer/Al) and multilayer type films (Polymer/Al film/paper) were analysed in the experiment. In comparison a Polylactic acid (PLA) biodegradable polymer was used. Tests were performed before and after food contact, for several days, at different temperature (25, 35 and 45°C) at 50% of relative humidity, during a thermo-oxidative degradation and after plasma aging simulation.