Characterization of Silica/EVOH Hybrid Coating Materials Prepared by Sol-Gel Method

In this study, the silica-based hybrid material with high barrier property was prepared by incorporating ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymer, which has been utilized as packaging materials due to its superior gas permeation resistance, during sol-gel process. In preparation of this EVOH/$SiO_2$ hybrid coating materials, the (3-glycidoxy-propyl)-trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) as a silane coupling agent was employed to promote interfacial adhesion between organic and inorganic phases. As confirmed from FT-IR analysis, the physical interaction between two phases was improved due to the increased hydrogen bonding, resulting in homogeneous microstructure with dispersion of nano-sized silica particles. However, depending on the range of content of added silane coupling agent (GPTMS), micro-phase separated microstructure in the hybrid could be observed due to insufficient interfacial attraction or possibility of polymerization reaction of epoxide ring in GPTMS. The oxygen barrier property of the mono-layer coated BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) film was examined for the hybrids containing various GPTMS contents. Consequently, it is revealed that GPTMS should be used in an optimum level of content to produce the high barrier EVOH/$SiO_2$ hybrid material with an improved optical transparency and homogeneous phase morphology.