Thermal, mechanical and permeation properties of gamma-irradiated multilayer food packaging films containing a buried layer of recycled low-density polyethylene

Abstract

The effect of gamma radiation (doses 5–60 kGy) on the thermal, mechanical and permeation properties, as well as on IR-spectra of experimental five-layer food packaging films were studied. Films contained a middle buried layer of recycled low-density polyethylene (LDPE) comprising 25–50% by weight of the multilayer structure. Representative films containing 100% virgin LDPE as the buried layer were taken as controls. Results showed that the percentage of recycled LDPE in the multilayer structure did not significantly ( p < 0.05 ) affect the melting temperature, tensile strength, percent elongation at break, Young's modulus, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour transmission rate values and the IR-spectra of the non-irradiated and irradiated multilayer films. Irradiation (mainly the higher dose of 60 kGy) induced certain small, but statistically significant ( p < 0.05 ) differences in the mechanical properties of multilayer films (with or without recycled LDPE layer) while no significant differences were observed in the thermal properties and in the gas and water vapour permeability of multilayer films. The above findings are discussed in relation to the good quality of the pre-consumer scrap used in the present study.