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Institute
The relative humidity level in the immediate vicinity of objects such as foods and technical items has an influence on transpiration and undesired relative humidity dependent reactions on their surfaces such as water vapour condensation, chemical reactions and microbial growth. Desirable are therefore materials that regulate the relative humidity to predefined levels in closed spaces such as in packagings and also in housing spaces. Such materials should be able to adjust the surface humidity of objects via water vapour diffusion in the gas phase without being in direct contact. A strategy to create such humidity regulating materials is the use of substances that absorb and desorb high amounts of water vapour, such as sodium chloride. Sodium chloride (NaCl) particles absorb water vapour at a relative humidity above 75% at 23 degrees C and then they form NaCl solution. NaCl solution desorbs water vapour when the relative humidity in the immediate vicinity decreases below the equilibrium relative humidity of that salt solution. Therefore, this system is able to regulate the relative humidity in its immediate vicinity. A strategy to provide free space in polymeric structures for the NaCl solution is the creation of cavities by foaming and stretching. However, only little knowledge exists about the influence of the combination of both processes on the functional properties of humidity regulating films with salt as active substance. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate how and to which extend foaming and/or stretching affects the functional properties, i.e. water vapour sorption and mechanical properties, of polypropylene (PP) films containing NaCl particles. For this study, foamed and non-foamed PP with 3 and 6 weight-% NaCl were extruded into films. In the next step, some of these samples were biaxially stretched and their structures, water vapour absorption, porosities and mechanical strengths were analysed. The only-foamed films had a porosity of 0.3, the porosity of only-biaxially stretched films was between 0.1 and 0.2. The porosity increased to 0.7 when the films were first foamed and stretched afterward. Foamed and then stretched films with 6 wt.-% NaCl absorbed a high amount of water vapour from air with a value of 0.8 g H2O/g film at 97% relative humidity. Stretching of filled and non-filled foamed films also resulted in higher mechanical strength of the pure matrix polymer in comparison to the pure matrix polymer of non-stretched films. By the results of this study is shown that humidity regulating films with high water vapour sorption capacity can be produced via extrusion, foaming and stretching processes which are established processes in the polymer industry.
Polymer materials that regulate the relative humidity in their environment are relevant for applications in the packaging and building sectors. By integration of salts in polymer structures, such materials are able to absorb and desorb high amounts of water vapor. In this study, films of polylactic acid and polypropylene with dispersed calcium chloride (2 and 4 wt %) were produced and biaxially stretched to induce the formation of cavities. The resulting cavities in these films account up to 10 vol % and are able to contain emerging calcium chloride solution formed by water vapor absorption. These films absorb reversibly up to 15 wt % water vapor at 75% relative humidity at 23 °C. This absorption behavior is described by effective diffusion and effective sorption coefficients. Using a simple model, the effective water vapor diffusion coefficient of these films can be estimated from the permeation coefficient of the polymer and the sorption coefficient of the absorber.
This study investigates chemical grafting with fatty acid chlorides as a method for the surface modification of hydrophilic web materials. The resulting changes in the water repellence and barrier properties were studied. For this purpose, different grades of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) were coated on regenerated cellulose films (“cellophane”) and paper and then grafted with fatty acid chlorides. The PVOH grades varied in their degree of hydrolysis and average molecular weight. The surface was esterified with two fatty acid chlorides, palmitoyl (C16) and stearoyl chloride (C18), by chemical grafting. The chemical grafting resulted in water-repellent surfaces and reduced water vapor transmission rates by a factor of almost 19. The impact of the surface modification was greater for a higher degree of hydrolysis of the polyvinyl alcohol and for shorter fatty acid chains. Although the water vapor barrier for palmitoyl-grafted PVOH was higher than for stearoyl-grafted PVOH, the contact angle with water was lower. Additionally, it was shown that a higher degree of hydrolysis led to higher water vapor barrier improvement factors after grafting. Furthermore, the oxygen permeability decreased after grafting significantly, due to the fact that the grafting protects the PVOH against humidity when the humidity is applied on the grafted side. It can be concluded that the carbon chain length of the fatty acid chlorides is the limiting factor for water vapor adsorption, but the grafting density is the bottleneck for water diffusing in the polymer.