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

每年产生3亿吨塑料废物。这是一项全球性挑战，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得可持续包装（可堆肥和完全可回收）在食品工业中成为必要，但可持续包装不能提供足够的屏障，以防止导致食品变质的水和氧气。消费品公司，以及为其提供包装材料的电影生产商和包装加工商，需要屏障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。项目团队开发了常压空间原子层沉积（AP-SALD）技术，用于包装材料的高通量屏障涂层，该技术正在由无限纳米技术公司商业化。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可堆肥性或可回收性，并且它们没有针孔，因此它们提供了优越的屏障性能。与传统的制造方法相比，AP-SALD是无溶剂和露天的，因此更便宜，更快，更环保。在这个项目中，研究团队和Nfinite将在不同的可持续包装材料上优化他们的新型AP-SALD屏障涂层，将技术转移到卷对卷涂层工艺中，并为可持续包装行业开发一种额外的涂层材料。该项目将解决剩余的商业化障碍，使无限销售他们的AP-SALD设备包装行业。该项目将促进创新型创业公司的成长，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、食物浪费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.