Trace permeation through barrier layers

高性能阻隔膜可防止大气中的氧气和水分以及二氧化碳和乙烯等其他物质进入/离开它们所保护的材料和设备。用于鉴定此类阻隔膜的分析设备是一个增长市场，复合年增长率> 20%，预计到2020年将超过1.5亿美元。阻隔膜市场分为食品和药品专用包装市场（15亿美元，GDP增长率为+5%）和塑料电子市场所需的新兴高增长超高性能阻隔层（复合年增长率为80%，预计到2020年将达到30亿美元）。为了达到所需的设备寿命= 10年，需要具有小于10 6 g/m2/day H2O的湿气渗透的屏障层-这些渗透速率目前超出了可使用商业可用仪器测量的约100倍!这严重限制了这些市场的超高性能阻隔膜的发展!该项目将展示一种仪器，可以测量渗透率到所需的水平，但在几天而不是几周的时间尺度，使快速发展的高性能阻隔层和支撑新兴的塑料电子市场的增长。该技术基于高灵敏度质谱仪检测器，并利用真空和使用低丰度天然存在的稳定同位素，例如D2O，以将干扰背景水平降低许多数量级。预计水分渗透率小于10 7 g/m2/day H2 O将实现。质谱仪检测器的独特能力，以监测多种物种同时允许其他物种的同时渗透测量所需的specialitypackaging行业在同一仪器，这减少了所需的设备数量，并给出了显着的竞争优势。

High performance barrier films prevent the passage of atmospheric oxygen and moisture,along with other species such as carbon dioxide and ethylene, to/from the materials anddevices they protect. The analytical equipment to qualify such barrier films is a growth marketwith a CAGR of >20% and projected to be >$150 million by 2020. The barrier film marketdivides between the established speciality packaging market for foods and pharmaceutical etc.at $1.5 billion, growing at GDP rates +5% and the emerging high growth ultra highperformance barrier layers required by the plastic electronics market with a CAGR of 80%and projected to be $3 billion by 2020. To achieve the required device lifetimes of =10 years,barrier layers with moisture permeation of less than 10 6 g/m2/day H2O are required – thesepermeation rates are currently beyond that measureable with commercially availableinstrumentation by approximately a factor of 100! This severely limits the development ofultra high performance barrier films for these markets!This project will demonstrate an instrument that can measure permeation rates to the requiredlevels but in a timescale of days rather than weeks enabling the rapid development of ultrahigh performance barrier layers and underpinning the growth of the emerging plasticelectronics markets. The technique is based on a high sensitivity mass spectrometer detectorand utilises vacuum and the use of low abundance naturally occurring stable isotopes e.g.D2O, to drive down interfering background levels by many orders of magnitude. It isanticipated that moisture permeation rates of less than 10 7 g/m2/day H2O will be achieved.The unique ability of a mass spectrometer detector to monitor multiple species simultaneouslyallows simultaneous permeation measurements of other species as required by the specialitypackaging industries in the same instrument; this reduces the quantity of equipment neededand gives a significant competitive advantage.