Ethylene
Vinyl Alcohol (EVOH) exhibits superior barrier properties
to carbon dioxide and methane with intrinsic brittleness, while Polyethylene
(PE) possesses a remarkable moisture barrier with high ductility.
It is hypothesized that multilayer composites of PE and EVOH could
offer both exceptional barriers to all greenhouse gases as well as
high toughness. In the present study, hybrid multilayers composed
of Polyethylene of Raised Temperature (PE-RT), Polyethylene grafted
Maleic Anhydride (PE-g-MA), and EVOH were fabricated
in different configurations of two to five layers. The static flexural
modulus of the 5-Layer (5L) film was measured to be 80% of the single-layer
EVOH and 16.8% higher than the single-layer PE-RT. The loss factor
of the 5L was obtained nearly equal or slightly higher than PE-RT
over the measured temperature range of 30 to 90 °C, suggesting
improved damping. The formation of hydrogen bonds at the interface
of EVOH and PE-g-MA significantly limited the diffusion
of water vapor molecules, resulting in the water vapor barrier performance
of 5L film at 82 °C outperforming the predicted value using inverse
additivity rule by 45.8%. Formation of hydrogen bonding at the interface
of EVOH and PE-g-MA significantly limited the diffusion
of water vapor molecules. A full microscopic and chemical composition
analysis of interlayers was performed to reveal the underlying connection
between the structure, property, and morphology. The classical lamination
theory was successfully applied and validated for predicting the dynamic
properties, which could be further used for design optimization of
such multilayers. The performance of the proposed 5-layer symmetric
structure confirms its potential for high-temperature–high-pressure
applications.