Barrier Coatings for Paper and Packaging Applications

Developing High-Performance, Barrier Coatings with Water-Based Polymers

Aqueous barrier coatings are an alternative to traditional paper and paperboard food packaging barriers (PFAS, extruded polyolefins, or wax). They provide a series of resistance properties, from oil and grease to water/water vapor to oxygen.  

When formulated correctly, they extend shelf life, maintain product integrity, and enable circular packaging by replacing the traditional barrier materials mentioned above. Aqueous barriers accomplish this while rendering the package recyclable. The result is food packaging, from quick-service food wraps to retail food packaging to industrial linerboard that’s sustainable.

Mallard Creek Polymers (MCP) partners with formulators, converters, packaging manufacturers, and paper mills to design specialty water-based emulsion polymers that serve as the foundation for high-performing, compliant, and sustainable barrier coatings.

With expertise spanning acrylic, styrene-acrylic, and styrene-butadiene (SBR) chemistries, MCP helps customers match the right polymer backbone to each coating’s performance, process, and compliance requirements.

Why Barrier Coatings Matter

Barrier coatings are engineered systems that define how packaging performs under contact, transport, and storage conditions. Achieving the right balance of oil resistance, water repellency, water vapor, and gas permeation control requires more than a single variable adjustment. Every target interacts with substrate composition, coating weight, and process parameters that can shift performance in either direction.

Formulators today are being asked to deliver coatings that eliminate PFAS/extruded polymer/wax, reduce coating weight, improve recyclability, and meet global food-contact standards while maintaining production efficiency. These objectives often compete, and polymer selection becomes the key to reconciling them.

The polymer binder not only determines adhesion but also governs film formation, surface energy, and pore structure, which directly affect Cobb, KIT, WVTR, and OTR results. Optimizing those properties requires understanding how polymer Tg, particle size, and functional monomers respond to drying profiles and substrate porosity.

Whether your goal is to limit grease penetration at elevated temperature, reduce vapor transmission in multilayer paperboard, or preserve flexibility in frozen environments, success depends on aligning polymer architecture, formulation design, and process control into a cohesive system.

MCP focuses on helping formulators achieve that alignment through emulsion polymers engineered to meet multiple performance targets at once while supporting compliance and circularity.

📘 Learn more in The Chemistry of Modern Life: Water, Oil, and Grease Resistance in Barrier Coatings.

Performance Engineering: Balancing Function and Process

Barrier performance is defined by measurable outcomes. MCP polymers are designed to help formulators achieve these targets consistently across substrates and application methods.

Typical Barrier Coating Benchmarks

Tykote® 6161, for example, delivers exceptional oil and grease resistance with strong Cobb performance, offering both OGR and water barrier properties in a single system. Tykote® 1004 is formulated for low MVTR coatings in frozen and humid packaging conditions, while Tykote® 1019 provides excellent Cobb resistance with a balanced film structure suitable for converting and downstream handling.

These benchmarks are based on our Low MVTR and Oil & Grease Resistance Starting-Point Formulations, evaluated under production-relevant test conditions.

📘 See full performance data in the Barrier Coatings Selection Guide.

Formulation Science: Designing the Polymer Backbone

Barrier coating performance depends on how the polymer film forms and interacts with the substrate. MCP’s range of acrylic, styrene-acrylic, and SBR emulsions allows formulators to fine-tune coatings for performance, cost, and sustainability goals.

Choosing the Right Polymer Family

Each chemistry offers distinct advantages in coalescence, film density, and adhesion, and can be blended or hybridized to balance performance with cost or sustainability targets. MCP’s formulations are designed to scale consistently across coating methods, including rod, blade, flexo, gravure, size press, and curtain.

Processing Variables That Influence Results

Seemingly small process variables can make measurable differences:

• Coat Weight: Heavier films improve barrier strength and fold crack resistance but can affect flexibility and recyclability.
• Drying Rate: Controlled water removal is required to allow film formation and subsequent cure. Excessively aggressive drying can disrupt film continuity and introduce voids that negatively impact MVTR.
• Substrate Porosity: Fiber packaging structure influences film continuity and additive holdout.
• Curing Temperature: Impacts film density and flexibility.
• Additive and Filler Choice: Pigments are added to barrier compounds to enhance barrier performance, improve coating holdout, control blocking resistance, and reduce formulation cost.

Optimizing these factors often yields more significant performance gains than changing polymer chemistry alone. MCP’s development team works closely with customers to interpret test data and identify the most effective formulation adjustments.

Crosslinking & Film Formation

Crosslinking influences more than chemical and thermal resistance. It also affects film stiffness, fracture behavior, and how a coating breaks apart during repulping. In some systems, increased crosslink density can produce a stiffer film that fractures more readily under mechanical agitation, improving fiber release during repulping.

Lower-Tg, highly flexible films may resist fracture and instead smear or agglomerate, which can complicate repulping even when the system is non-crosslinked. As a result, repulpability depends on the balance between crosslink density, Tg, film thickness, and drying conditions rather than crosslinking alone.

MCP supports both crosslinkable and non-crosslinkable polymer systems, helping formulators tune film formation and mechanical properties to meet environmental exposure, converting performance, and end-of-life requirements simultaneously.

Applications Across Paper & Packaging Markets

MCP polymers are used globally across both food packaging and industrial paperboard markets. By tailoring polymer selection and formulation design, MCP helps manufacturers hit performance targets across diverse substrates and environments.

Food & Beverage Packaging

• Grease-Resistant Barrier Coatings for quick-service wraps and trays.
• Moisture Vapor Barrier Coatings for frozen/refrigerated packaging as well as increasing shelf life on retail, ambient conditions packaging, such as bakery goods and heat-sealable envelopes for powdered materials.
• Paper Cup & Lid Coatings that maintain surface integrity and adhesion after converting.
• Low-odor, FDA-compliant emulsions designed for direct and indirect food contact.

Industrial & Non-Food Paperboard

• Paperboard Coatings for corrugated liners and kraft boards.
• Chemical- and oil-resistant coatings for industrial wraps and release liners.
• Durable moisture barriers for paper tubes, cores, and storage packaging.

🧩 Explore related markets in Polymers for Printing & Packaging and Polymers for Paper.

Sustainability & Compliance

Barrier coatings are central to packaging sustainability. MCP’s polymers are developed to help formulators meet performance, safety, and recyclability targets simultaneously.

• PFAS-Free: 100% fluorine-free polymer portfolio.
• Water-Based and Solvent-Free: Low VOCs and improved workplace safety.
• Food Contact Compliance: Supports formulation strategies aligned with FDA and other food contact regulations in the Americas, European standards, and Asian regulations when used in compliant coating formulations.
• Recyclable and Repulpable: Proven compatibility with standard paper recovery systems.
• Regionally Validated: Tested under TAPPI and European recycling protocols.

📘 See how MCP polymers advance recyclable barrier solutions in Sustainable Food Packaging Solutions.

Partnering with MCP

Successful barrier development depends on collaboration between formulation science, process engineering, and polymer design. MCP serves as a technical partner throughout that process, helping you accelerate development and reduce variability from lab to line.

Our collaboration process:

1. Talk to a Chemist. Share your application, substrate, and target test results.
2. Experiment & Evaluate. We’ll provide samples and guide formulation trials.
3. Refine & Scale. Once optimized, MCP supports you through production scale-up.