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Characterization of extruded ethylene‐vinyl alcohol copolymer based barrier blends with interest in food packaging applications
Author(s) -
Lagarón J.M.,
Giménez E.,
Altava B.,
DelValle V.,
Gavara R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.200350840
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , vinyl alcohol , ionomer , ethylene , polymer blend , phase (matter) , chemical engineering , solubility , polymer chemistry , miscibility , diffusion , composite material , polymer , organic chemistry , chemistry , engineering , catalysis , physics , thermodynamics
Based on previous work a number of optimum extruded blends with high contents of a high barrier ethylene‐vinyl alcohol copolymer were selected and characterized in terms of phase morphology, water sorption and barrier properties. Blend components were an ethylene vinyl‐alcohol copolymer (EVOH with 32 mol% ethylene), an amorphous polyamide (aPA) and a nylon‐containing ionomer. A fine two phase structure was found for these blends in all cases. However, Raman spectroscopy results indicated a poor interface interaction between the blend components in the case of the EVOH/aPA blends. Higher interface interaction had been previously found in the dry EVOH/ionomer blends. Equilibrium moisture solubility and diffusion were found to be higher than expected from simple additivity. However, the oxygen transmission rate was found to be clearly lower than expected from the rule of mixtures, particularly under dry conditions, fitting closely a simple Maxwell model.