TY - JOUR
T1 - A study on the oxygen permeability behavior of nanoclay in a polypropylene/nanoclay nanocomposite by biaxial stretching
AU - Jung, Bich Nam
AU - Jung, Hyun Wook
AU - Kang, Dong Ho
AU - Kim, Gi Hong
AU - Shim, Jin Kie
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was a part of the project titled ‘Development to solve current issues in seafood distribution (Project number: 1525011894)’, funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors.
PY - 2021/8/2
Y1 - 2021/8/2
N2 - Polypropylene (PP) has poor oxygen barrier properties, therefore it is manufactured in a multi-layer structure with other plastics and metals, and has been widely used as a packaging material in various industries from food and beverage to pharmaceuticals. However, multi-layered packaging materials are generally low in recyclability and cause serious environmental pollution, therefore we have faced the challenge of improving the oxygen barrier performance as a uni-material. In this work, PP/nanoclay nanocomposites were prepared at nanoclay contents ranging from 0.8 to 6.4 wt% by the biaxial stretching method, performed through a sequential stretching method. It was observed that, as the draw ratio increased, the behavior of the agglomerates of the nanoclay located in the PP matrix changed and the nanoclay was dispersed along the second stretching direction. Oxygen barrier properties of PP/nanoclay nanocomposites are clearly improved due to this dispersion effect. As the biaxial stretching ratio and the content of nanoclay increased, the oxygen permeability value of the PP/nanoclay nanocomposite decreased to 43.5 cc·mm/m2·day·atm, which was reduced by about 64% compared to PP. Moreover, even when the relative humidity was increased from 0% to 90%, the oxygen permeability values remained almost the same without quality deterioration. Besides these properties, we also found that the mechanical and thermal properties were also improved. The biaxially-stretched PP/nanoclay nanocomposite fabricated in this study is a potential candidate for the replacement of the multi-layered packaging material used in the packaging fields.
AB - Polypropylene (PP) has poor oxygen barrier properties, therefore it is manufactured in a multi-layer structure with other plastics and metals, and has been widely used as a packaging material in various industries from food and beverage to pharmaceuticals. However, multi-layered packaging materials are generally low in recyclability and cause serious environmental pollution, therefore we have faced the challenge of improving the oxygen barrier performance as a uni-material. In this work, PP/nanoclay nanocomposites were prepared at nanoclay contents ranging from 0.8 to 6.4 wt% by the biaxial stretching method, performed through a sequential stretching method. It was observed that, as the draw ratio increased, the behavior of the agglomerates of the nanoclay located in the PP matrix changed and the nanoclay was dispersed along the second stretching direction. Oxygen barrier properties of PP/nanoclay nanocomposites are clearly improved due to this dispersion effect. As the biaxial stretching ratio and the content of nanoclay increased, the oxygen permeability value of the PP/nanoclay nanocomposite decreased to 43.5 cc·mm/m2·day·atm, which was reduced by about 64% compared to PP. Moreover, even when the relative humidity was increased from 0% to 90%, the oxygen permeability values remained almost the same without quality deterioration. Besides these properties, we also found that the mechanical and thermal properties were also improved. The biaxially-stretched PP/nanoclay nanocomposite fabricated in this study is a potential candidate for the replacement of the multi-layered packaging material used in the packaging fields.
KW - Biaxial stretching
KW - Nanoclays
KW - Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113196128&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/polym13162760
DO - 10.3390/polym13162760
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113196128
SN - 2073-4360
VL - 13
JO - Polymers
JF - Polymers
IS - 16
M1 - 2760
ER -