Moisture Barrier Properties Analysis for Aluminized Composite Film in Pharmaceutical Packaging

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There are many kinds of packaging materials for drugs, such as plastic bottles, aluminum foil, hard film, aluminum plating composite film, CO extrusion composite film, etc. these materials should have high barrier performance, which can prevent the drugs from discoloration, deterioration, moisture absorption, caking and other quality problems. The barrier performance of drug packaging materials includes the barrier of oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor and other gases, such as preventing the excessive permeation of oxygen and water vapor in the environment into the inside of the package, lowering the nitrogen content in the package.

Due to the different types of packaging materials, their barrier properties are different. For the aluminum plating composite film, due to the existence of aluminum plating layer, the barrier properties of this kind of materials are not only related to the material composition of plastic polymer materials, but also related to the aluminum plating process. In this paper, through the test of water vapor transmission rate of aluminized composite film for drug packaging, the difference of moisture barrier performance of this kind of material is compared.

2、Sample

In this test, the water vapor transmission rate of three kinds of aluminized composite films of packaged drugs were tested, the samples were numbered with 1#, 2# and 3#.

3、Standard

The test principle of water vapor transmittance includes cup method, infrared sensor method, electrolytic sensor method, humidity sensor method, etc. the electrolytic sensor method is adopted in this test. Flexible plastic packaging materials can be tested according to 15106-3 Plastics – Film and sheeting – Determination of water vapor transmission rate – Part 3: Electrolytic detection sensor method

4、Instrument

In this paper, C330h Water Vapor Transmission Rate Test System is used for the test. The instrument is independently developed and produced by Jinan Labthink Instruments Co., Ltd.

4.1 Test principle

The electrolytic sensor method is developed based on the principle of quantitative electrical signal generated by hydrogen and oxygen produced by water molecular electrolysis. During the test, the clamped sample divides the test chamber into upper and lower chambers. The upper chamber is filled with nitrogen with certain humidity, and the lower chamber is filled with dry nitrogen. Due to the humidity difference, the water vapor penetrates into the lower chamber from the upper chamber through the sample, and is carried to the sensor by the nitrogen in the lower chamber for analysis. According to the measured electrical signal and unit quantity, the quantitative relationship between the water molecule and its electric signal is used to calculate the water vapor transmission rate of the material, that is, the mass of water vapor penetrating through the material per unit area in unit time.

5、Test procedure

(1) Cut one specimen from each of the three samples.

(2) Mount the specimens in three test chambers of the instrument and close tightly the upper chamber cover.

(3) Set the sample name, thickness, test temperature, humidity, test mode and other parameters in the control software, and click the “test’ button to start the test. The instrument runs according to the set parameters, and displays the test results after the test.

6、Test results

The water vapor transmission rate of 1#, 2# and 3# composite film samples we0.071 g/(m²·d), 0.234 g/(m²·d) and 0.248 g/(m²·d) respectively.

7、Conclusion

In this test, three simples were tested at one time, the efficiency is high, , the instrument is intelligence and simple to operate, test conditions were stable during the whole test, and the results were therefore accurate and reliable. According to the test results, all three samples had low water vapor transmission rate, indicating that the moisture barrier performance were high. 1# sample has the lowest water vapor transmission rate and the best moisture barrier performance, and the other two samples have the same moisture barrier performance.

Jinan Labthink Instruments Co., Ltd, is dedicated to providing customers with packaging testing solutions and helping the manufacturers to reach their goals of quality and safety assurance through improvement of packaging testing techniques and development of high-end packaging testing instruments. The newly introduced C series barrier testing systems adopting self-sensing technology revolutionarily improved the testing accuracy, efficiency and automation, realized the paradigm shift of packaging barrier testing instruments. For more information please visit en.labthink.com