HiBarFilm2 - High barrier monomaterial flexible films for food contact applications

HiBarFilm2财团将在我们的可行性研究项目（HiBarFilm）取得成功的基础上，继续开发用于食品包装应用的高阻隔单层薄膜。多层柔性薄膜通常大量用于食品和医疗包装，是回收利用最具挑战性的塑料产品之一，这些材料占所有消费包装的近四分之一，但目前只有6%被回收利用（WRAP）。这些薄膜通常由3到12层不同的塑料粘在一起，这通常意味着回收它们不经济，或者如果回收，由于材料的混合会影响废物流的质量，因此这些材料通常被焚烧或送到垃圾填埋场。多层柔性薄膜是目前食品工业的必需品。食品生产是一个能源和资源密集型产业，塑料包装有可能通过减少食物浪费和延长保质期来实现对环境的净积极影响。这些多层聚合物层的组合提供了屏障性能-通过控制氧气和水的传输速率来增加产品的保质期，它还负责包装的物理和机械性能，如抗撕裂性和耐热性。在使用这些通常难以回收的多层一次性塑料和食物浪费的增加之间保持着良好的平衡。HiBarFilm2有一个雄心勃勃的目标，即使用单材料聚烯烃薄膜实现与目前使用的多层屏障膜相同的屏障性能。该联盟的目标是使用等离子体功能化纳米材料来实现这一目标，以提高两个主要领域的屏障性能；首先，在拍摄之前将纳米材料直接混合到聚烯烃中，增加薄膜本身的屏障特性——聚烯烃薄膜和可堆肥塑料都将用于解决薄膜被食物垃圾（如脂肪和血液）污染的问题；其次，通过将纳米材料分散到可应用于聚烯烃基材的屏障涂层中。优点是这两种解决方案可以结合起来进一步提高屏障性能。通过制造单材料柔性薄膜，这些材料的可回收性将增加，价值将增加到这种多功能材料。

The HiBarFilm2 consortium will build on the success seen in our feasibility study project (HiBarFilm) and continue the development of high barrier monolayer films for food packaging applications. Multilayer flexible films, used commonly at high volumes in food and medical packaging, are one of the most challenging plastic products to recycle, these materials represent nearly a quarter of all consumer packaging, yet only 6% is currently recycled (WRAP). These thin films are typically between three and twelve layers of different plastics adhered together, often meaning they are not economical to recycle or if recycled can affect the quality of waste streams due to the mix of materials, consequently these materials are commonly incinerated or sent to landfill.Multilayer flexible films are currently a necessity in the food industry. Food production is an energy and resource intensive industry, to which plastic packaging has the potential to achieve a net positive environmental impact by reducing food waste and increasing shelf-life. The combination of these multiple polymer layers is what provides the barrier performance -- increasing the shelf life of products by controlling the transmission rate of oxygen and water, it is also responsible for the packaging's physical and mechanical performance, such as puncture and tear resistance and heat sealability. There remains fine balance between the use of these often challenging to recycle, multi-layered single use plastics and an increase in food waste.HiBarFilm2 has an ambitious objective to achieve the same barrier performance using a mono-material polyolefin film as the currently used multilayer barrier films. The consortium aims to accomplish this using plasma functionalised nanomaterials to increase barrier performance in two main areas of focus; firstly by mixing the nanomaterials directly into the polyolefin prior to filming, adding barrier properties to the film itself - both polyolefin films and compostable plastics will be used to also address the issue with contamination of the films with food waste such as fats and blood; and secondly by dispersing the nanomaterials into a barrier coating which can be applied to the polyolefin substrate. The advantage being the two solutions can be combined to increase the barrier performance further.By manufacturing mono-material flexible films the recyclability of these materials will increase, and value will be added to this versatile material.