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Preparation and characterization of high barrier coating of citric acid crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol and nano-SiO2

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Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coating has attracted intense attention due to its biodegradability and high gas barrier properties. However, the high gas barrier properties deteriorate at elevated humidity. Herein, we aimed to prepare PVA based coating with high water resistance by incorporating nano-SiO2 (S) and citric acid (CA), and polyethylene (PE) film was selected as a substrate model. The results showed that the PVA/S/CA coated PE films had better water vapor and oxygen barrier performance than the uncoated PE films. With an optimized mass ratio (PVA/S/CA10%), the coated PE films’ water vapor permeability decreased by 46.53% at 90% RH, and the oxygen permeability decreased by four orders of magnitude at 0% relative humidity (RH). Besides, increased surface roughness and a more hydrophobic surface were observed in the coated PE films. Overall, these coated PE films still retained high transparency and were mechanically robust, making them potential candidates for the flexible food packaging field.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFA1203600, No. 2022YFA1203604).

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KL: Data curation; formal analysis; methodology; writing; SH: Conceptualization; writing-review and editing; FD: Conceptualization; writing-review and editing; JW: Conceptualization; funding acquisition; supervision; writing-review and editing.

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Correspondence to Jun Wang.

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Liu, K., Huang, S., Duan, F. et al. Preparation and characterization of high barrier coating of citric acid crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol and nano-SiO2. J Coat Technol Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-024-00930-7

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