Diffusion Behavior of Polyethylene Furanoate (PEF) and Tritan as Sustainable Polyester Packaging Materials

TL;DR

This paper compares the diffusion behavior of sustainable polyester materials PEF and Tritan with traditional PET and PEN for food packaging.

Contribution

The study determines modeling parameters for PEF and Tritan, enabling prediction of their migration behavior without extensive experiments.

Findings

PEF has the lowest diffusion among the four polyesters, followed by PEN, PET, and Tritan.

The results show that PEF, PEN, PET, and Tritan are low-diffusivity materials suitable for food packaging.

Modeling parameters for PEF and Tritan were derived from experimental diffusion coefficients and activation energies.

Abstract

Polyethylene furanoate (PEF) and TritanTM copolyester are sustainable polyester polymers. PEF is made from biobased resources, whereas Tritan is mainly used for reusable food contact articles. Both polyesters are alternatives for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is currently the most used polyester in food packaging. Like all packaging polymers, sustainable alternatives to fossil-based PET must also comply with food law requirements. Prediction of the migration can be used as an alternative to complex and time-consuming experimental migration measurements. Since there are no such predictive models for either PEF or Tritan, the modelling parameters for PEF and Tritan were determined in this study from experimentally determined diffusion coefficients and activation energies. The diffusivity of PEF and Tritan was compared with PET and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). Of the four polyester polymers, PEF shows the lowest diffusion, followed by PEN, PET, and Tritan. Overall, the results show that the investigated polyesters are low-diffusivity polymers.

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