SFB/ TR 87: RezyPlas

News

10.12.2025 | events
Launch of KI4KI: Artificial intelligence for the plastics industry

On 25 November 2026, nine companies launched the KI4KI consortium project at the Plastic Innovation Centre 4.0 at the IKV. At the kick-off event, the partners’ key requirements were analysed, initial AI use cases were identified and valuable insights from the

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Functional PECVD coatings as a migration barrier for the use of post-consumer recyclates in food contact

Plasma-polymer coating systems can, as migration barriers, offer pioneering solutions for the processing and use of recyclates in plastic packaging, also for contact-sensitive applications. To this end, the RezyPlas project methodically combined material characterisation, coating development and migration testing.

The focus is on reducing migration from post-consumer recyclates (PCR). As part of the project, beakers were manufactured from post-consumer polypropylene (PCR-PP). As their surface properties differ from those of virgin materials in several ways, a different coating and process development procedure was required for these beakers. A key aspect of the project was the production of so-called model recyclates, with the aid of which granules and films with reproducible contamination and concentration levels were made available for further development of the coatings. Another important step involved the development of methods for the mass spectroscopy coupled with gas chromatography (GC-MS) for the quantitative representation of migration processes of the contaminants, and their reduction through a PECVD coating (Fig. 1).

SFBTR87_Migrationsbarriere-für-Einsatz-von-PCR-im-Lebensmittelkontakt — Fig. 1: Optimised method for the evaluation and development of barriers

The methodical combination of material characterisation, coating development and migration testing provides a universal and solid basis for adapting the method to different types of plastic and contamination profiles. Especially the developed GC/MS-based migration testing offers a flexible approach for evaluating the barrier properties in various recycling streams. This allows the identification and optimisation of barrier systems, which can also be used in other recyclate applications such as engineering plastics or packaging materials outside the food sector.

Project data and funding

We would like to thank the DFG for funding the project as part of the Collaborative Research Center TR 87 and the project partners for their cooperation.

Project duration: 01.06.2021 – 31.05.2024

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