Mono-material multilayer polypropylene films were developed as light barrier structures through the incorporation of mineral-filled composite layers. Trilayer films with different layer arrangements were fabricated by thermocompression from polypropylene-based films containing 0, 1 and 5 wt.% of talc and kaolinite. A monolayer polypropylene film of equivalent total thickness was used as a control. Structural, thermal, mechanical, optical, and gas barrier properties were evaluated for all films fabricated. A well-defined trilayer structure was confirmed by SEM. FTIR analysis demonstrated negligible thermo-oxidation, with no thermal-degradation during processing. Improved thermal stability and a slight modification in crystallinity were evidenced by TGA and DSC, respectively. XRD revealed the predominance of the α-form crystalline phase and a preferential polymer crystal orientation associated with the particle presence. Regarding mechanical behavior, enhanced stiffness and tensile strength without loss of sealability or puncture resistance were observed. Trilayer films exhibited significantly reduced UV and visible light transmittance, while maintaining adequate translucency, making them suitable for photosensitive packaging applications. Gas permeabilities remained nearly unchanged, confirming that the barrier performances were preserved. Overall, these mono-material multilayer composites films offer a promising and recyclable alternative to conventional multi-material light barrier packaging, combining improved UV protection, mechanical robustness, and environmental compatibility.

In the ongoing effort to improve sustainability in gas separation technologies, optimizing membrane materials remains a significant challenge. Advanced polymeric materials, such as those belonging to the polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) family, exhibit highly sophisticated architectures and excellent separation performance; however, they do not satisfy sustainability requirements. In contrast, biopolymers such as poly(hydroxyalkanoate)s (PHAs) are mechanically robust and show promising CO2-selective behaviour, but their CO₂ permeability is typically limited to values below 3 Barrer.,This study presents a novel biodegradable membrane composed of 98 wt% poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV8) and 2 wt% PIM-1. The incorporation of this small fraction of PIM-1 enhances the CO2 permeability of PHBV8 by an order of magnitude without compromising its stability. Specifically, the CO2 solubility coefficient is increased by 37% on a mass basis, while the diffusivity is increased by a factor of almost 8, giving rise to an estimated ten-fold permeability increase, reaching a CO2 permeability of 30 Barrer. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest value reported to date for biodegradable membranes and highlights significant potential for further improvement through optimization of the fabrication protocol. On the other hand, the addition of PIM-1 slightly reduces CO2/CH4 selectivity, by a factor of about 34%, with respect to PHBV8, as its solubility-selectivity is much lower than neat PHBV.,Application of EoS modelling including the NET-GP approach allows to describe solubility behaviour across the full range of blend compositions and to predict mixed-gas sorption selectivity for the CO2/CH4 system. Description of solubility coupled with description of diffusivity based on the free volume theory,indicates that membrane properties can be finely tuned by adjusting the PIM-1 content, and substantial gains in membrane performance can be expected mainly at low mass fractions of PIM-1.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage is a crucial short‐term strategy to mitigate climate change. Once captured, CO ₂ needs to be transported to storage sites, and to ensure efficient transport, it is typically compressed into a liquid or supercritical fluid. These conditions can alter the properties of materials used during the transport stage. A HNBR, a commonly used elastomer in oil and gas applications, is investigated in this work in terms of its CO ₂ permeation properties. The plasticization effect of CO ₂ plays a key role, as it can shift the glass transition temperature, leading to peculiar permeability behavior at high‐pressure. Thermodynamic modelling is also effectively applied, describing the observed trends.

Hydrogen will be the energy vector of our future, but cost-effective production of such gas is still far from being established. Nowadays, major issues in hydrogen synthesis are its cost-effective separation from process byproducts, mainly CO₂ or CH₄. Bottom-up fabrication of molecular nanoarchitectures composed of sheets of 2D materials such as graphene oxide (GO) offers a potentially tunable platform to prepare versatile gas membranes able to obtain pure hydrogen for industrial applications. In this work, we assembled a series of PDDA–GO composite nanomaterials with tunable thickness, exploiting the strong interaction between GO and PDDA and varying the number of deposition cycles. Surprisingly, we observed excellent selectivity for hydrogen even after one single deposition cycle, with the membrane ca. 4 nm thick showing the highest permeance. Using extensive characterization with quartz crystal microbalance, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we could attribute such an unexpected combination of selectivity/permeance to the formation of an interpenetrated multilayered structure with GO sheets spaced approximately 1.1 nm apart and intercalated by polymer chains, which self-assemble forming an intercalated layered structure even after a single deposition cycle. This approach could significantly reduce the complexity and cost of production for gas separation membranes.