Migration of acrylic monomers from methacrylate polymers - establishing parameters for migration modelling

Acrylic acid-based and methacrylic acid-based monomers are widely used for the manufacture of polymers, for polymer dispersions or for other specialty resins. Some of these applications cause interactions between the polymer and contact medium such as food contact materials, eyeglasses, contact lenses or toys. More specifically, migration of monomers from the polymer into the contact medium may occur, which needs to be evaluated for safety purposes. The objective of this study was to investigate the basic diffusion properties of acrylic polymers with respect to representative monomers in order to establish a scientific basis for migration modelling simulating the mass transport of monomers from the polymers when they are in contact with foods, human skin or body fluids such as sweat and saliva. For this purpose, 11 representative acrylic polymers containing five different acrylic monomers (MA, EA, BA, MMA and nBMA) were studied in extensive kinetic migrations experiments in contact with five different contact media (simulants) at three different temperatures (20°C, 40°C and 60°C). The simulants were selected according to the applications: toys were simulated by saliva simulant and articles coming in contact with human skin by sweat simulant. For food contact applications, water (aqueous foods), Miglyol 840 (Sasol, Witten, Germany) (fatty food) and Tenax® (Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, Munich, Germany) (an adsorbent simulating dry foods) were selected. The diffusion coefficients (D) of the monomers in the polymer as well as partition coefficients between polymer and contact media were derived. It was found that those acrylic polymer materials used for rigid plastics applications exhibit extremely low diffusion behaviour, whereas acrylic polymer resins used for coating applications showed somewhat higher diffusion behaviour but this still at very low rates in comparison with other typical polymers used for the manufacture of food packaging materials. As a result, conservative polymer-specific constants in support of migration modelling were established, and the specifications for the model general applicability were determined and specified. The parameter related to the polymers' intrinsic mobility is applicable to model migration of any other organic chemical substances, which may be present in acrylic polymers as potential migrants when they have comparable or higher molecular weights than the studied monomers.