Silicon Oxide Barrier Coatings Deposited on Polymer Materials for Applications in Food Packaging Industry

Deposition of SiOx layers by low‐pressure microwave plasmas is an excellent means to add missing barrier functionalities to cheap and material‐saving homo‐polymeric materials that will increasingly replace expensive multi‐layer polymer food packaging. SiOx coatings were deposited in an ECR plasma process on polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) foils using two different precursors, HMDSO and HMDSN. O2 transition rates of less than 1 cm3 (m−2·24 h−1·bar−1) were obtained for the best performing SiOx coatings deposited from O2/HMDSN gas mixtures. First ECR plasma deposition tests on polypropylene (PP) trays show the high barrier potential of SiOx coatings even on three‐dimensional polymer food packaging.