Silicon Oxide Barrier Coatings Deposited on Polymer Materials for Applications in Food Packaging Industry

Abstract

Abstract Deposition of SiO x layers by low‐pressure microwave plasmas is an excellent means to add missing barrier functionalities to cheap and material‐saving homo‐polymeric materials that will increasingly replace expensive multi‐layer polymer food packaging. SiO x coatings were deposited in an ECR plasma process on polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) foils using two different precursors, HMDSO and HMDSN. O 2 transition rates of less than 1 cm 3 (m −2 ·24 h −1 ·bar −1 ) were obtained for the best performing SiO x coatings deposited from O 2 /HMDSN gas mixtures. First ECR plasma deposition tests on polypropylene (PP) trays show the high barrier potential of SiO x coatings even on three‐dimensional polymer food packaging.