Effect of humidity on mechanical, thermal and barrier properties of EVOH films

Secondly, an analysis of the experimental water sorption isotherm, expressed as the number of water molecules sorbed per repeating unit in the amorphous phase, associated with an analysis of the evolution of polymer chains mobility allowed to establish a relationship between the hydration mechanism at molecular scale and the properties. It was determined that the amount of water sorbed molecules dramatically increased at a critical point, corresponding to the moment from which one water molecule was linked in average every nine amorphous PVOH units. This point corresponded to the saturation of the monolayer and the beginning of the clustering phenomenon.