Gasoline Permeation Resistance of Containers of Polyethylene, Polyethylene/Modified Polyamide and Polyethylene/Blends of Modified Polyamide and Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol

Abstract

An investigation of the gasoline permeation resistance of polyethylene (PE), polyethylene/modified polyamide (MPA), and polyethylene/blends of modified polyamide and ethylene vinyl alcohol (MPAEVOH) bottles is reported. The gasoline permeation resistance improves slightly after blending EVOH barrier resins in PE matrices during blow-molding, wherein only broken and less demarcated EVOH laminas were found on the fracture surfaces of the PE/EVOH bottle. In contrast, much better permeation resistance and more clearly defined MPA and MPAEVOH laminas were found for PE/MPA and PE/MPAEVOH bottles, respectively. The gasoline barrier properties and MPAEVOH laminar structures of PE/MPAEVOH bottles improve and become more demarcated, respectively, as the MPA contents present in MPAEVOH resins increase. In fact, by using the proper composition, the gasoline permeation rate of PE/MPAEVOH bottles is about 450 and 3 times slower than that of the PE and PE/MPA bottles, respectively. These interesting gasoline barrier and morphological properties of PE, PE/MPA and PE/MPAEVOH were investigated in terms of melt shear viscosities and thermal properties of the base resins, and the chemical and physical amorphous phase structure present in their corresponding bottles.