Research Opportunity Number: CBE-02

Project Title: Oxygen Permeability of Ethylene Copolymers

Project Summary: Because of their light weight, low cost, good mechanical properties, and ease of processing into a variety of shapes, polymers are ubiquitous in food packaging. An additional requirement for most packages is a sufficiently low permeability to oxygen (“good oxygen barrier”), which keeps food fresh. Often this barrier performance is achieved by laminating a thin layer of a high-barrier polymer (such as an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer) between thick layers of polyethylene or another ethylene copolymer. But such multilayer films are difficult to recycle, motivating the development of new polymers which can simultaneously meet both the mechanical property and oxygen barrier requirements, and thus be easier to reprocess and recycle. But to design new materials for this purpose, we first need a better understanding of the oxygen barrier performance of current polymers used in packaging, and multilayer films formed from them. 

The student working on this project will make oxygen permeability measurements both on commercial packaging films, and on known polymers which the student will melt-press into films. Polymer crystallinity is known to be an important factor for gas permeability, so the student will also measure polymer crystallinity by differential scanning calorimetry.

Student Roles and Responsibilities:Student will prepare films for testing, measure oxygen permeability as well as melting temperature and enthalpy, and analyze the results. We anticipate an inverse correlation between permeability and crystallinity, modulated by the chemical identity of the comonomer unit(s).

Additional Considerations: Start and end dates are flexible, but student should be available essentially full-time (at least 35 hours/week) for a minimum of 7 weeks (longer preferred).

Department/Institute: Chemical and Biological Engineering

Participation Dates: June 30 – August 22, 2025

Stipend Offered: $0

Number of Internships Available: 0-1

Application Deadline: March 15, 2025, midnight Eastern Daylight Time