Kinetic Migration of Diethylhexyl Phthalate in Functional PVC Films

Abstract

Plasticizers that are generally used in plastics to produce flexible food packaging materials have proved to cause reproductive system problems and women's infertility. A longterm consumption may even cause cancer diseases. Hence a nano-scale layer, named as functional barrier layer, was deposited on the plastic surface to prevent plasticizer diethylhexyl phthalate's (DEHP) migration from plastics to foods. The feasibility of functional barrier layer i.e. SiOx coating through plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process was then described in this paper. We used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to analyze the chemical composition of coatings, scanning electron microscope (SEM) to explore the topography of the coating surfaces, surface profilemeter to measure thickness of coatings, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to evaluate the barrier properties of coatings. The results have clearly shown that the coatings can perfectly block the migration of the DEHP from plastics to their containers. It is also concluded that process parameters significantly influence the block efficiency of the coatings. When the deposition conditions of SiOx coatings were optimized, i.e. 50 W of the discharge power, 4 : 1 of ratio of O2 : HMDSO, and ca.100 nm thickness of SiOx, 71.2% of the DEHP was effectively blocked.

Migration study of phthalates from non-food plastic containers used in food preservation

“…observed that the migration of phthalates in beverages is accelerated in acid medium (pH < 5) by modifying the structure of the plastic polymer. Similar reports showed that migration of phthalates increases with temperature, contact time, dry matter content and hydrophobic nature of food [ 22 , 23 , 15 , 19 ]. On contrary, studies show that the successive washing of plastic containers contributes to reduce the content of additives that they release, due to the depolymerisation of the polymer [ 24 , 25 ].…”

“…[ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. There is an evidence that the migration of phthalates is high in fatty food than is acid or aqueous food [ 20 , 21 ].…”

“…Several studies have focused on modeling the migration of phthalates from plastic material into food using mathematical models and food simulant such as water, ethanol, acetic acid, hexane or isooctane [ 19 , 29 , 30 ]. [ 30 ] showed that using food simulant in evaluation of migration kinetics of additives leads to an overestimation of migration data by multiplying the real levels of migrated compound by 50 times.…”

Hydrophilization of outer and inner surfaces of Poly(vinyl chloride) tubes using surface dielectric barrier discharges generated in ambient air plasma

“…The disadvantage of these techniques is the long treatment time, from tens of minutes to hours . The treatment of the PVC with a low pressure plasma also leads to reduction of plasticizer migration . Drawbacks of the low pressure process are long evacuation times, due to the presence of volatile components in the polymer, as well as the difficulty to achieve the material treatment continuously in in‐line processing.…”

“…[19][20][21][22] The treatment of the PVC with a low pressure plasma also leads to reduction of plasticizer migration. [23][24][25][26] Drawbacks of the low pressure process are long evacuation times, due to the presence of volatile components in the polymer, as well as the difficulty to achieve the material treatment continuously in in-line processing. Barreto et al [27] studied the protective coating of organosilicon compounds (HMDSO, OMCTS) using dielectric barrier discharge in nitrogen .…”