Submitted Abstract
In the food/beverage packaging market, the requirement for ultra-low water and oxygen permeation rates require either brittle materials (such as glass) or metal coatings (which are opaque). By establishing a tight collaboration between MET-LUX, a Luxembourgish SME specialized in the field of metallized polymer foils, and LIST, research centre with strong expertise in transparent functional thin films, the TRANSPERBAR project aims at developing new packaging solutions combining optical transparency and ultra-low permeation rates. This shall enable MET-LUX to address on the mid-term new markets like transparent packaging of sensitive products, and the strongly growing market of barrier layers for transparent electronics on a longer-term. The project will focus on the integration of novel proprietary materials grown via chemical vapour techniques (based on granted and pending patents) into functional multi-layer coatings. From a fundamental understanding of the gas phase diffusion through the transparent coatings, their properties will be tuned, from medium performance barrier layer for packaging, to high-performance barrier layer for flexible electronics. This research will include multi-functional transparent and conductive barriers for advanced packaging solutions. The project will lead to the validation of the barrier layers at the laboratory scale (TRL 4), before a future up-scaling of the solutions onto a roll-to-roll processing system compatible with MET-LUX technology.