The UV part of the sunlight that reaches earth surface causes damage on living organisms and organic molecules. The energy of the UV radiation is enough to break chemical bonds in organic molecules. Food and beverage which are compositions of different compounds are easily affected by UV radiation. In order to maintain their freshness, food and beverage must be stored in a proper container to protect them from the sunlight. For this purpose, Tetra pak packaging or aluminum cans are used. Although Tetra pak packaging provides UV protection, the additives such as plasticizers and Bisphenol A used in the manufacture of the plastic film of the inner surface of the packaging system are being suspected of having a negative impact on human health. The taste and quality of food and beverage placed in aluminum cans may change with time because of the contamination caused by the packaging material. The fact that aluminum corrodes easily limits its utilization as packaging material in many areas, as well. There are no such problems with glass as packaging material.
The glass is transparent to UV radiation although it is a healthy for packaging purposes. Its high transparency to UV radiation, which shortens the shelf life of food and beverage products, limits its utilization as packaging material. In this proposal, a transparent coating by sol-gel method will be applied on glass container to make UV proof. The coating solutions will be prepared from silane carrying functional groups and UV absorbing inorganic pigments such as TiO2, ZnO ve CeO2. In order to maintain high transparency of the coating to visible light, first the nanoparticles of TiO2, ZnO ve CeO2 will synthesized and then their surface will be modified to get homogeneous dispersions of nanoparticles in silane solutions. The UV proof coating will be produced by spraying the obtained coating solutions onto the surface of glass containers and curing it on the production line. |