A review on predictive tortuosity models for composite films in gas barrier applications

Abstract

Different types of impermeable fillers are usually incorporated into polymeric coating film to enhance the gas barrier properties. For instance, impermeable fillers are commonly used in barrier coating due to their larger surface, which in turn serve as barrier inclusions restricting the penetrant gas to diffuse through a longer tortuous pathway. Modeling gas transport in barrier coating can help determine the shelf-life of packaged food and reduce product development resources and time. In this paper, related tortuosity-based models corresponding to different filler geometries are outlined. This review emphasizes the emerging trends in modeling the tortuous pathway and the respective relative permeability model to predict the gas barrier performance in composite films used for barrier coating applications. We review models incorporating a range of factors, including different shapes, geometries, angular orientations, alignments, randomness in distribution, stacking, interspacing, and the polydispersity of fillers. The approaches employed to develop the tortuosity-based phenomenological models starting with simplified filler geometry and orientations to more complex morphological features of the composite films are elaborated.