Super barrier BOPET film can replace glass

At the conference on barrier film and vertical retort pouches recently held in Brussels, the Fraunhofer Engineering Research Institute in Germany demonstrated Ormcers, a new material containing organic/inorganic composite barrier materials. This is a new material made of a submicron-thick organic barrier material and an inorganic barrier material simultaneously bonded to a BOPET (Biaxially Stretched Polyester) substrate. It has high gas and moisture barrier properties and is said to be a substitute for glass.

Ormcers first applies a 100 to 1000 nm thick organically modified ceramic on the surface of a BOPET film by a roll coating process. The organically modified ceramic is a reticulated silica crosslinked with an organic cross-linking agent, and then it is 20 to 100 nm thick. Inorganic alumina or silica composites give super barrier films. The Fraunhofer Institute of Engineering in collaboration with Isovolta of Austria recently developed this super barrier BOPET film with a combined coating thickness of 12 μm. Isovolta plans to produce this film industrially in the second half of 2007, replacing glass for small photovoltaic cells.

Reprinted from: China Chemical News