Sustainable polymer packaging materials based on ternary polymer blends with high barrier

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High barrier plastic packaging is an important component in plastic packaging market especially in the food packaging industry. Protecting food products from environmental elements especially oxygen has been shown to increase significantly the shelf life and reduce food waste. High barrier plastic packaging is commonly a multilayer polymer film in which a layer of high barrier polymer material is sandwiched between other layers. The most common high barrier materials are ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and polyamide (PA). The high cost of these materials with respect to commodity polymers such as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) increases the cost of high barrier packaging. In addition, the presence of these materials in the polymer packaging structure makes the polymer packaging non-recyclable. This is due to the fact that re-processing of currently used high barrier polymer packages causes processing issues and results in products with poor final properties and appearance. The objective of this proposal is to examine the commercial potential of a novel high barrier multiphase plastic material and to apply the technology to actual plastic packaging products. The proposed materials are ternary polymer blends of PA, EVOH and PP or PE. The blends are designed to achieve a morphology known as complete wetting in which EVOH is spread as a thin layer between two major phases of PA and the other olefin phase (PE or PP). The encapsulation of low barrier olefin phase by the high barrier EVOH, increases significantly the oxygen barrier properties. The result is a lower cost polymer system with improved recyclability which shows oxygen barrier properties similar to the neat PA. We aim to license the composition as well as the processing knowledge for this material and the overall objective at the end of this project is to obtain at least two possible plastic packaging that demonstrate sufficient viable commercial potential to attract client investment.