Barrier and physical properties of polypropylene/high barrier ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer blends compatibilized with a sodium ionomer

The aim of this work is to investigate the properties of the PP/EVOH films for their potential use in the packaging industry. Besides, the barrier properties, the mechanical parameters and the morphology of the PP/EVOH films have been studied as function of their composition and the processing technique used for their manufacture. In these applications, the package is frequently in contact with humidity environments and for this, it is necessary to know how environments with different humidity contents, affect the O-2 permeability of the polymer material. For these reasons, the influence of the moisture in the values of permeability was evaluated too. The data showed that the oxygen transmission rate (O2TR) decreased with the amount of EVOH, and if the copolymer mass is maintained constant, the O2TR diminished with the quantity of the ionomer in the compositions. Besides, the films obtained by extrusion and following unidirectional stretching, presented better barrier properties to the oxygen molecules than the compression moulded films. When the ionomer is added to the compositions the permeability is reduced even for the films maintained in wet atmosphere. The micrographs obtained by SEM showed that the films have a biphasic structure, where the EVOH particles are dispersed in the PP matrix.