This book is a systematic and comprehensive presentation of the structure and barrier properties of polymer films. Starting from a presentation of how gases and liquid solutes permeate films, the book explains the performance limits of polymer barriers under multiple conditions and with many types of permeants. Information on mass transport within films is related to film structure, and in turn is used to illustrate how engineers can predict properties and performance for single and multilayer barriers.

The technology offered here will enable packaging engineers, food scientists, and polymer specialists to design highly specific barriers using polymers—by providing the tools to carry out materials selection, multilayer design, and chemical analysis. Includes hundreds of worked problems and EXCEL-based calculations.