Understanding the barrier properties of dry, clay-based coatings. A contribution from computational modelling

Abstract

Coatings with high barriers to gases, vapours and flavours find their major application in food packaging materials. Taking into account the amount of food currently wasted every year, packaging that keeps it fresh for a longer time has an important role to play in reducing the amount of energy consumed during the food production and transport cycle. Moreover, the importance of using sustainable packaging materials has become apparent over recent decades. This can be achieved by replacing the petroleum-derived additives (e.g. plastics) used when coating paper and board packaging by greener alternatives that still deliver the barrier and other crucial properties needed for competitive, low carbon footprint packaging materials.