Abstract
A steady state concentration increase method was developed for the simultaneous measurement of the gas permeability coefficient of plastic films to oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Several polypropylene and polyethylene plastic films with a thickness of 15μm were used in this experiment. The permeability coefficients of the plastic films to carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen were measured at 8, 14, 20, and 26°C. The results show that temperature has a significant effect on the permeability coefficients of all the gases tested (O2, CO2, N2). The gas permeability coefficients increase with increasing temperature. The temperature effect on gas permeability coefficients could be expressed by an Arrhenius equation with the coefficient of determination (R2) values ranging between 0.904 and 0.999. The ratio of permeabilities of CO2 to O2 at 25°C are 2.0 and 4.0 for the polypropylene and polyethylene films, respectively
