In concordance with the excellent level of nanoclay intercalation
and acceptable exfoliation achieved, the nanoclays in PAN created atortuous pathway for oxygen through the packaging material. As a
result, the oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of PAN nanocomposites
was about 54% lower than determined for the neat PA multilayer
(Table 1) obtaining a remarkable enhancement of barrier properties
as previously described by Sadeghi et al. (2013), Fasihi and
Abolghasemi (2011), Picard et al. (2008) and Picouet et al. (2014)
for similar polyamide nanocomposites. Furthermore, additional
30% savings in polyamide thickness could be achieved with the
incorporation of nanoclays, which might also have an economic
impact.