Migration of oligomers from PET: determination of diffusion coefficients and comparison of experimental versus modelled migration.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is increasingly used as food-contact material in, for example, containers for beverage such as bottles for soft drinks, mineral water, juices and beer. Mass transport of substances present in packaging materials into the packed food and beverages is monitored to verify the food law compliance of the materials. PET is known to contain or give rise to migrants that are oligomers derived from the polymeric material. Until now their actual migration potential has been investigated only poorly. A convenient way to determine their migration would be by using models. To verify existing models with experimental data, a migration kinetic study of PET oligomers was conducted. PET bottle material was submerged in 50% ethanol at 80°C for 15 h. The oligomer content in the migration solutions was determined every hour using LC-MS with the first-series cyclic PET trimer as standard. Diffusion coefficients of five PET oligomers (first-series dimer and trimer, second-series dimer and trimer, and third-series dimer) were calculated from the obtained data and compared with the calculated diffusion coefficients using the models of Welle and Piringer. This is the first study to provide diffusion characteristics of oligomers in PET other than the first-series cyclic trimer.