Migration of oligomers from PET: determination of diffusion coefficients and comparison of experimental versus modelled migration

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is increasingly used as food-contact material in, for example, containers for beverage such as bottles for soft drinks, mineral water, juices and beer. Mass transport of substances present in packaging materials into the packed food and beverages is monitored to verify the food law compliance of the materials. PET is known to contain or give rise to migrants that are oligomers derived from the polymeric material. Until now their actual migration potential has been investigated only poorly. A convenient way to determine their migration would be by using models. To verify existing models with experimental data, a migration kinetic study of PET oligomers was conducted. PET bottle material was submerged in 50% ethanol at 80°C for 15 h. The oligomer content in the migration solutions was determined every hour using LC-MS with the first-series cyclic PET trimer as standard. Diffusion coefficients of five PET oligomers (first-series dimer and trimer, second-series dimer and trimer, and third-series dimer) were calculated from the obtained data and compared with the calculated diffusion coefficients using the models of Welle and Piringer. This is the first study to provide diffusion characteristics of oligomers in PET other than the first-series cyclic trimer.

Effect of Temperature on Antimony Leaching from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) into Bottled Water

“…Several scientists (Greifenstein et al, 2013;Sánchez-Martínez et al, 2013;Welle and Franz, 2011) confirmed contamination of PETE-packaged foodstuffs and soft drinks with leaching Sb. Hoppe et al (2017) confirmed the leachability of oligomers from PETE that, according to their findings, have originated from the polymeric material. Phthalate esters, used as plasticizers, where found by Keresztes et al (2013) to migrate from PETE containers into packaged water.…”

Polystyrene Biodegradation by Tenebrio molitor Larvae: Identification of Generated Substances Using a GC-MS Untargeted Screening Method

“…From day 1, the volatiles PS oligomers 2,4,6,-triphenyl -1-hexene and 1,3,5-triphenyl cyclohexane were already being formed, while also styrene and α-methyl styrene were generated. It is worthy to notice that for many other polymers, such as in the case of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the trimer has been described as the most abundant structure [30,31]. 2,4-DTBP was also identified.…”

Analysis of PBT and PET cyclic oligomers in extracts of coffee capsules and food simulants by a HPLC-UV/FLD method

“…Among the most relevant PES are polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT). PET is selected for food contact materials (FCMs) due to its impact resistance, strength, flexibility and resistance to high temperatures (Ting Wu et al, 2014 ; Hoppe, Fornari, de Voogt, & Franz, 2017 ). Since recently PBT is also used in FCM applications such as coffee capsules, oxygen-barrier films, kitchenware, microwaveable dishware ( Brenz et al, 2017 , Brenz et al, 2018 ), whereas the use of PTT still remains restricted to the textile and automotive industry ( Piccinini, Senaldi, & Alberto Lopes, 2014 ).…”