Atmospheric Pressure Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition of Barrier Coatings for Sustainable Packaging (I2I Phase IIb)

每年产生3亿吨塑料垃圾。这是一个全球性的挑战，170个国家承诺到2030年大幅减少塑料的使用。新的法规和消费者行为使可持续包装(可堆肥和完全可回收)在食品行业变得必要，但可持续包装并不能提供足够的屏障来防止导致食品变质的水和氧气。消费品公司以及提供包装材料的薄膜生产商和包装转换商需要障碍解决方案来过渡到可持续包装，而不增加食品浪费和损害食品安全。该项目团队开发了大气压空间原子层沉积(AP-SALD)技术，用于在包装材料上高通量涂覆屏障，该技术正由NFinite Nanotech Inc.商业化。与传统的屏障涂层相比，AP-SALD金属氧化物涂层只有几十纳米(十亿分之一米)厚，因此它们不会影响可持续包装的堆肥性或可回收性，而且它们没有针孔，因此提供了优异的阻隔性能。与传统的生产方法相比，AP-Sald是无溶剂和露天的，所以它更便宜，更快，更绿色。在这个项目中，研究团队和无限公司将在不同的可持续包装材料上优化他们的新型AP-SALD阻隔涂层，将技术转移到卷到卷涂层工艺，并为可持续包装行业开发额外的涂层材料。该项目将解决剩余的商业化障碍，使无限公司能够将他们的AP-SALD设备出售给包装行业。该项目将促进一家创新型初创公司的成长，并为加拿大带来显著的经济和环境效益。这项技术将同时减少塑料垃圾、食物垃圾和相关的温室气体排放。

300 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced annually. This is a global challenge and 170 nations pledged to significantly reduce plastic use by 2030. New regulations and consumer behavior are making sustainable packaging (compostable and fully-recyclable) necessary in the food industry, but sustainable packaging does not provide an adequate barrier to the water and oxygen that cause food to spoil. Consumer-packaged-goods companies, and the film producers and packaging converters that supply their packaging materials, need barrier solutions to transition to sustainable packaging without increasing food waste and compromising food safety. The project team has developed atmospheric-pressure spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD) technology for high-throughput coating of barriers on packaging materials, which is being commercialized by Nfinite Nanotechnology Inc. Compared to traditional barrier coatings, AP-SALD metal-oxide coatings are only a few tens of nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick, so they do not affect the compostability or recyclability of sustainable packaging, and they are free of pinholes so they provide superior barrier properties. Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, AP-SALD is solvent-free and open-air, so it is cheaper, faster, and green. In this project, the research team and Nfinite will optimize their novel AP-SALD barrier coatings on different sustainable packaging materials, transfer the technology to a roll-to-roll coating process, and develop an additional coating material for the sustainable packaging industry.The project will address remaining commercialization barriers, enabling Nfinite to sell their AP-SALD equipment to the packaging industry. The project will foster the growth of an innovative startup company and bring significant economic and environmental benefits to Canada. The technology will simultaneously reduce plastic waste, food waste, and associated greenhouse gas emissions.