Oxygen Barrier Performance of Poly(vinyl alcohol) Coating Films with Different Induced Crystallinity and Model Predictions

The presence of the crystalline regions in poly(vinyl alcohol) coating films acts as barrier clusters forcing gas molecules to diffuse a longer pathway amorphous region polymer, where diffusivity and solubility are promoted comparison. Evaluating influence on oxygen property semi-crystalline polymer is thus essential prepare better films. Poly(vinyl with varying induced crystallinity were prepared polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by drying at different annealing temperatures for 10 min. first delaminated from PET then characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques determine confirm percentage crystallinity. performance films, i.e., transmission rate (OTR), was measured room temperature. Results showed decrease OTR values film an increase degree matrix. Tortuosity-based models, modified Nielsen adopted predict PVOH uniform or randomly distributed crystallites. A model orderly crystallites aspect ratio 3.4 10.4 resulted good correlation experimental observation. For crystallites, lower absolute average relative errors 4.66, 4.45, 5.79% observed compared when obtained FTIR, DSC, XRD data, respectively.