Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is one of the most important polymers in use today for packaging due to its outstanding properties. The usage of PET has grown at the highest rate compared with other plastic packaging over the last 20 years, and it is anticipated that the increase in global demand will be around 6% in the 2010-2015 period. The rheological behaviour, thermal properties, tensile modulus, permeability properties and degradation phenomena of PET/clay nanocomposites have been investigated in this project. An overall, important finding is that incorporation of nanoclays in PET gives rise to improvements in several key process and product parameters together - processability/ reduced process energy, thermal properties, barrier properties and stiffness. The PET pellets have been compounded with carefully selected nanoclays (Somasif MAE, Somasif MTE and Cloisite 25A) via twin screw extrusion to produce PET/clay nanocomposites at various weight fractions of nanoclay (1, 3, 5, 20 wt.%). The nanoclays vary in the aspect ratio of the platelets, surfactant and/or gallery spacing so different effect are to be expected. The materials were carefully prepared prior to processing in terms of sufficient drying and re-crystallisation of the amorphous pellets as well as the use of dual motor feeders for feeding the materials to the extruder. The rheological properties of PET melts have been found to be enhanced by decreasing the viscosity of the PET i.e. increasing the 'flowability' of the PET melt during the injection or/and extrusion processes. The apparent shear viscosity of PETNCs is show to be significantly lower than un-filled PET at high shear rates. The viscosity exhibits shear thinning behaviour which can be explained by two mechanisms which can occur simultaneously. The first mechanism proposed is that some polymer has entangled and few oriented molecular chain at rest and when applying high shear rates, the level of entanglements is reduced and the molecular chains tend to orient with the flow direction. The other mechanism is that the nanoparticles align with the flow direction at high shear rates. At low shear rate, the magnitudes of the shear viscosity are dependent on the nanoclay concentrations and processing shear rate. Increasing nanoclay concentration leads to increases in shear viscosity. The viscosity was observed to deviate from Newtonian behaviour and exhibited shear thinning at a 3 wt.% concentration. It is possible that the formation of aggregates of clay is responsible for an increase in shear viscosity. Reducing the shear viscosity has positive benefits for downstream manufacturers by reducing power consumption. It was observed that all ii three nanoclays used in this project act as nucleation agents for crystallisation by increasing the crystallisation temperature from the melt and decreasing the crystallisation temperature from the solid and increasing the crystallisation rate, while retaining the melt temperature and glass transition temperatures without significant change. This enhancement in the thermal properties leads to a decrease in the required cycle time for manufacturing processes thus potentially reducing operational costs and increasing production output. It was observed that the nanoclay significantly enhanced the barrier properties of the PET film by up to 50% this potentially allows new PET packaging applications for longer shelf lives or high gas pressures. PET final products require high stiffness whether for carbonated soft drinks or rough handling during distribution. The PET/Somasif nanocomposites exhibit an increase in the tensile modulus of PET nanocomposite films by up to 125% which can be attributed to many reasons including the good dispersion of these clays within the PET matrix as shown by TEM images as well as the good compatibility between the PET chains and the Somasif clays. The tensile test results for the PET/clay nanocomposites micro-moulded samples shows that the injection speed is crucial factor affecting the mechanical properties of polymer injection moulded products.

Also aged bottles are safer to use than new bottles because their chemical leaching was found to be lower than that of new bottles. This study recommends the reassessment of the absence of international guidelines for acetaldehyde in water and foods. The study also recommends that the amount of acetaldehyde that can be added to soft drinks as flavouring agent should be below the specific migration limit (SML) for migration of acetaldehyde from PET bottle into bottle contents. This is essential since the SML was designed to ensure that exposure to acetaldehyde, as a result of intake of bottled water and soft drinks in PET bottles, is below the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for acetaldehyde. As antimony was reported to go beyond the safe limits in some Nigerian bottled water and soft drinks after 11 months of storage this study discourages the use of bottle contents stored for a very long time.

The properties of materials, especially of solids, can be attributed mainly to the phenomena occurring at the surface. Surface engineering deals with altering the surface properties of materials to realize useful functionalities like wear and corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, hardening etc. Among the various methods adopted, plasma surface modification stands out, because of the inherent dry processing nature and little amount of left over chemicals. In conventional plasma systems, the process is carried out in a low pressure environment. This restricts its use in treating vacuum incompatible materials including tissues and bio-medical samples. Moreover, the batch processing nature and use of expensive vacuum pumps put a bottle-neck in the throughput of any production line. The subject matter of this thesis is about developing and optimizing an atmospheric pressure (760 torr) plasma system and to use it for surface modification of polymers. The experimental system developed, consists of two parallel electrodes facing each other, each of which is covered with a dielectric plate. A gap of 4mm exists between the dielectric surfaces, through which an axial flow of the working gas is maintained. When a high voltage is applied across the electrodes, the gas breaks down, creating plasma. The surface of the sample kept in this plasma, undergoes various phenomena, depending on the power applied, type of gas used and gas flow rate. To drive the plasma a high voltage power supply, which is able to generate 10 kV at 5.8 kHz, was developed in the laboratory. By varying the process parameters, the inherent filamentary nature of discharge can be converted to a diffuse uniform glow. The purity of plasma was studied and established by analyzing the optical emission from the plasma. After optimizing the system, it was used to modify the surface properties of polyester sheets. The wetting nature was altered using fluorocarbon and oxygen plasmas, realizing hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The contact angle of a water droplet made with the surface changed from 72° to 84° degree for hydrophobic and to 22° for hydrophilic surfaces respectively. Through this investigation, an insight to the procedure for developing an Atmospheric glow discharge system was developed. The details about system frame work, the power supply, electrical and optical characterization of the plasma, are well studied and recorded. The work establishes the various parameters to be varied to convert the filamentary discharge to a uniform glow. Purity of the plasma has been studied extensively and the system design and process values essential for maintaining the purity have been dealt with. Finally the plasma was put in use for surface modification of polymers, and the surface wetting nature alteration was studied and quantified.

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2017-07-18T12:00:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3670112 bytes, checksum: d762a13cb07012ebb6bb3db0a6e3d4d6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-18T12:00:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3670112 bytes, checksum: d762a13cb07012ebb6bb3db0a6e3d4d6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The accumulated water on pavement surfaces is one of the factors responsible for the occurrence of traffic accidents, as it reduces the tire-pavement interface friction. The use of porous asphalt mixtures can increase road safety because it increases the adherence between a vehicle's tires and the pavement, especially in a wet highway, owing to its high drainage capacity. Accordingly, this research had the purpose of analyzing the use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste as an alternative of additives to porous asphalt mixtures. The work method consisted of materials characterization, determination of the optimum binder content, production of three kinds of asphalt mixtures (conventional, with the addition of PET, and with polymer asphalt) and the performance of draindown tests, moisture susceptibility, resilient modulus, flow number, fatigue test, permeability to the asphalt mixtures, in their respective optimum binder contents. The PET was added to the mixtures by a dry process in the proportions of: 0; 0,33; 0,5; 0,75 e 1% regarding to the weight of the aggregates. The asphalt mixtures with polymer asphalt were taken as reference. Considering the mixtures design, additions of 0,75% PET up carried out the lowest optimum binder content. Besides that, the addition of PET contributed for a binder draindown inhibition and improved the mixtures performance regarding to moisture susceptibility. The PET additivated mixtures presented an increasing in the resilient modulus and a tendency of a longer fatigue life at low tension levels and high number of load applications. However, the mixtures are susceptible to rutting, even though presenting stiffening. Concerning to permeability, the execution of only one test became inconclusive. Although, it was verified that PET can present viability of being used as additive porous asphalt mixtures. / A água acumulada sobre a superfície do pavimento é uma das responsáveis pela ocorrência de acidentes em rodovias, por reduzir o atrito na interface pneu-pavimento. A adoção de misturas asfálticas porosas pode aumentar a segurança viária, pois seu uso favorece a aderência entre os pneus dos veículos e o pavimento, especialmente em pista molhada, tendo em vista a sua alta capacidade de drenagem. Diante disso, esta pesquisa objetivou analisar o uso de resíduos de politereftalato de etileno (PET) como aditivo para misturas asfálticas porosas. O método de trabalho consistiu na realização de ensaios de caracterização dos materiais utilizados, determinação do teor de projeto de ligante asfáltico, confecção de três tipos de misturas asfálticas (convencional, com adição de PET e com asfalto polímero) e realização de ensaios de escorrimento, dano por umidade induzida, módulo de resiliência, deformação permanente, vida de fadiga e permeabilidade para as misturas asfálticas, em seus respectivos teores de projeto de ligante asfáltico. A adição de PET nas misturas foi realizada via processo seco nas proporções 0,00; 0,33; 0,50; 0,75 e 1,00% em relação ao peso dos agregados. As misturas asfálticas com asfalto modificado por polímero foram tomadas como referência, tendo em vista a preferência do uso desse tipo de ligante em misturas porosas. Em termos de dosagem, adições de PET em até 0,75% resultaram na redução do teor de projeto de ligante asfáltico. Além disso, o PET contribuiu para a inibição do escorrimento do ligante e favoreceu o desempenho das misturas em relação ao dano por umidade induzida. As misturas aditivadas com PET apresentaram um aumento no módulo de resiliência e uma tendência de maior vida de fadiga para baixos níveis de tensões e elevadas repetições de carga. Porém, mostraram-se suscetíveis à deformação permanente, mesmo tendo apresentado um maior enrijecimento. Quanto a permeabilidade, é necessário a realização de mais ensaios de modo a garantir uma melhor confiabilidade nos resultados. De todo modo, pôde-se verificar que o PET pode apresentar viabilidade de ser utilizado como aditivos em misturas asfálticas porosas.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:21:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ArquivoTotal.pdf: 4834263 bytes, checksum: 9a0661df73e9955af44f0e37d15bf261 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The heterogeneous catalysis is a promising alternative to solve the environmental problems found in homogeneous catalysis, because it allows the continuous use of the catalyst until its deactivation and minimizes the generation of effluents. Thus, this work aims to synthesize, optimize and evaluate the activity of heterogeneous catalysts, using PET bottles as a starting material in the synthesis of the active phase and SiO2 as catalyst support for the transesterification reaction of soybean oil. The the catalysts were obtained by a impregnating reaction using methanol. The active phase, the catalysts and catalyst support were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and EDS, thermal analysis (TG) and measurement surface area (BET). The biodiesels has been synthesized using a molar ratio of 1:9 (soybean oil: methanol), 0,1 g of active phase as catalyst (room temperature) and 1,2 g of the catalysts synthesized at 75 °C, where its kinematic viscosities were measurements. All catalysts were effective in the synthesis of biodiesel because the viscosity reduction of soybean oil used was very significant, indicating that may have occurred the transesterification process, among all biodiesels synthesized the catalyst that stood out was the 30%-K2CO3/70% SiO2, which was obtained greater viscosity reduction at a lower reaction time. The quality tests were made for 1h Bio-30%, which proved be inside the parameters established by the Agência Nacional de Patróleo (ANP). The experiment reuse of the catalyst used in the synthesis of Bio-1h 30%, showed that the catalytic activity is reduced due to possible leaching phenomenon, then preliminary studies have been proposed to study the possible leaching of the active phase. / A catálise heterogênea é uma alternativa promissora para resolver os problemas ambientais encontrados na catálise homogênea, pois permite o uso continuo do catalisador até sua desativação e minimiza a geração de efluentes. Neste sentido, este trabalho visa em sintetizar, otimizar e avaliar a atividade de catalisadores heterogêneos, utilizando a garrafa PET pós-consumo como matéria prima na síntese da fase ativa e SiO2 como suporte catalítico para a reação de transesterificação com óleo de soja. Os catalisadores foram obtidos pela o método de impregnação utilizando o metanol como solvente. A fase ativa, os catalisadores e o suporte catalítico foram caracterizados por difração de raios-X (DRX), espectroscopia na região do infravermelho (IV), espectroscopia Raman, microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV) e EDS, análise térmica (TG), e medida de área superficial (BET). Os biodieseis foram sintetizados utilizando uma razão molar de 1:9 (óleo de soja: metanol), 0,1 g da fase ativa como catalisador a temperatura ambiente e 1,2 g dos catalisadores sintetizados a 75 °C, onde suas viscosidades cinemáticas foram medidas. Todos os catalisadores foram efetivos na síntese do biodiesel, pois promoveu a redução de viscosidade do óleo de soja utilizado, no qual mostrou um indicativo que a reação de transesterificação ocorreu, dentre todos os biodieseis sintetizados o catalisador que mais se destacou foi o 30%-K2CO3/70%-SiO2, onde obteve-se a maior redução de viscosidade com um menor tempo reacional. Os testes de qualidade foram feitos para o Bio 1h-30%, o qual mostrou estar dentro dos parâmetros estabelecidos pela Agência Nacional de Petróleo (ANP). O experimento de reuso do catalisador utilizado na síntese do Bio 1h-30%, mostrou que a atividade catalítica é reduzida devido ao possível fenômeno de lixiviação, então estudos preliminares foram propostos para estudar a possível lixiviação da fase ativa.

In current enterprises, simulations are being utilized to lessen the cost of product advancement.  Along this line, there is an awesome enthusiasm for enhancing precision and accuracy of simulations. For an accurate and reliable simulation, it is essential to use an accurate material model and provide it with accurate material information. In exhibit industries, orthotropic materials are being simulated utilizing isotropic material model, as orthotropic material model requires more material data which is not promptly accessible. This proposal intends to test and identify orthotropic materials and simulate them using orthotropic material model in ABAQUS. Materials utilized as a part of this proposal are Aluminium, LDPE, PET. Required material data was gotten by performing Uni-directional tensile tests, DIC, and an algorithm we developed in light of Inverses method. To get highly accurate material data from DIC, a few kinds of patterns were examined, and a superior pattern was resolved for camera configuration being utilized.

Thermomonospora curvata is a thermophilic actinomycete hylogenetically related to Thermobifida fusca that produces extracellular hydrolases capable of degrading synthetic polyesters. Analysis of the genome of T. curvata DSM43183 revealed two genes coding for putative polyester hydrolases Tcur1278 and Tcur0390 sharing 61% sequence identity with the T. fusca enzymes. Mature proteins of Tcur1278 and Tcur0390 were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli TOP10. Tcur1278 and Tcur0390 exhibited an optimal reaction temperature against p-nitrophenyl butyrate at 60°C and 55°C, respectively. The optimal pH for both enzymes was determined at pH 8.5. Tcur1278 retained more than 80% and Tcur0390 less than 10% of their initial activity following incubation for 60 min at 55°C. Tcur0390 showed a higher hydrolytic activity against poly(ε-caprolactone) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanoparticles compared to Tcur1278 at reaction temperatures up to 50°C. At 55°C and 60°C, hydrolytic activity against PET nanoparticles was only detected with Tcur1278. In silico modeling of the polyester hydrolases and docking with a model substrate composed of two repeating units of PET revealed the typical fold of α/β serine hydrolases with an exposed catalytic triad. Molecular dynamics simulations confirmed the superior thermal stability of Tcur1278 considered as the main reason for its higher hydrolytic activity on PET.:Introduction; Materials and methods; Results; Discussion

<p>Temperature is the common accelerant that is used for shelf-life determination of shelf-stable food because it is easy to use and there are models such as Q₁₀and Arrhenius, which are available for shelf-life prediction. The accelerated shelf-life test (ASLT) still requires months of analysis time as it only uses temperature as the accelerant. Oxygen pressure as an accelerant has not been given much attention even though many studies have shown the negative impact of oxygen on the shelf-life of food. An effective analysis method with multiple accelerants has the potential for the development of a rapid shelf-life determination method. Hence, this research focused on the invention of a rapid method, named the Ultra-Accelerated Shelf-Life Test (UASLT) that combines oxygen pressure and temperature as accelerants and the development of shelf-life prediction model(s). The study hypothesized that the application of elevated oxygen pressure and elevated temperature (40C) increases the amount of oxygen diffusing into packaged food which leads to rapid degradation of nutrients that further reduces the overall shelf-life analysis time compared to the ASLT method. A custom-made high-pressure chamber with a 100% oxygen environment at 40C was designed and developed as part of the UASLT method. The impact of the application of oxygen pressure on oxygen diffusivity in polymeric food packaging materials was investigated on three packages with different oxygen permeability properties. The application of oxygen pressure significantly increased the rate of oxygen transfer and the oxygen diffusivity values for all packaging materials compared to the counterparts that were not exposed to the pressure. A shelf-stable model food fortified with vitamins A, B1, C and D3 was developed to investigate the effectiveness of the UASLT method in degrading the quality indicators in the model foods in a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) container. PET was chosen as it was the most permeable to oxygen. Model food was also subjected to ASLT conditions at the same temperature without additional pressure and at room temperature (control). A degradation of 27.1 ± 1.9%, 13.9± 2.1%, 35.8 ± 1.0%, and 35.4 ± 0.7% were seen in vitamins A, B1, C and D3, respectively, in just 50 days. Slower degradation was observed with samples kept under the ASLT conditions for 105 days and reached a degradation of 24.0 ± 2.0%, 4.9 ± 6.1%, 32.0 ± 3.1% and 25.1 ± 1.5% for vitamin A, B1, C and D3, respectively. The control samples that were studied for 210 days showed 14.9 ± 5.0%, 2.0 ± 2.2%, 13.8 ± 2.2% and 10.6% ± 0.8% degradation in vitamins A, B1, C and D3, respectively. The increase in the dE values due to browning in samples kept at the UASLT, ASLT and control conditions were 11.67 ± 0.09, 7.49 ± 0.19 and 2.51 ± 0.11, respectively. The degradation of vitamins A, C, D3 was analyzed using the 1st order kinetic and the rate constant,    (day^-1) was used to develop four prediction models. Vitamin B1 values were omitted from the kinetic analysis due to insufficient degradation. Two temperature-oxygen diffusion models were developed by correlating oxygen diffusivity and   . Comparisons were made with the temperature-based models of    and Arrhenius. The predicted    values across the models were in the range of 0.051-0.054 day^-1,0.080-0.088 day^-1 and 0.048-0.051 day^-1, for vitamin A, C and D3, respectively. The    values estimated for vitamins A, C, and D3 were 2.16, 2.63 and 2.62, respectively. The predicted shelf-life of vitamin A, C and D3 to undergo 25% reduction was in the range of 404 to 551, 321-353 and 529-583 days across all models, respectively. The shelf-life predicted from the temperature-oxygen diffusion models was close to the temperature models indicating the potential to be paired with the UASLT method. Experimental verification is needed to analyze the errors in the prediction. The addition of oxygen pressure further reduced the shelf-life analysis time by 50% compared to ASLT. Elevated external oxygen pressure can be used as an accelerant along with elevated temperatures (40C) for rapid shelf-life testing of packaged foods. This novel approach has potential application in the food industry for faster shelf-life analysis of food.</p>

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is one of the most important polymers in use today for packaging due to its outstanding properties. The usage of PET has grown at the highest rate compared with other plastic packaging over the last 20 years, and it is anticipated that the increase in global demand will be around 6% in the 2010 ¿ 2015 period. The rheological behaviour, thermal properties, tensile modulus, permeability properties and degradation phenomena of PET/clay nanocomposites have been investigated in this project. An overall, important finding is that incorporation of nanoclays in PET gives rise to improvements in several key process and product parameters together ¿ processability/ reduced process energy, thermal properties, barrier properties and stiffness. The PET pellets have been compounded with carefully selected nanoclays (Somasif MAE, Somasif MTE and Cloisite 25A) via twin screw extrusion to produce PET/clay nanocomposites at various weight fractions of nanoclay (1, 3, 5, 20 wt.%). The nanoclays vary in the aspect ratio of the platelets, surfactant and/or gallery spacing so different effect are to be expected. The materials were carefully prepared prior to processing in terms of sufficient drying and re-crystallisation of the amorphous pellets as well as the use of dual motor feeders for feeding the materials to the extruder. The rheological properties of PET melts have been found to be enhanced by decreasing the viscosity of the PET i.e. increasing the ¿flowability¿ of the PET melt during the injection or/and extrusion processes. The apparent shear viscosity of PETNCs is show to be significantly lower than un-filled PET at high shear rates. The viscosity exhibits shear thinning behaviour which can be explained by two mechanisms which can occur simultaneously. The first mechanism proposed is that some polymer has entangled and few oriented molecular chain at rest and when applying high shear rates, the level of entanglements is reduced and the molecular chains tend to orient with the flow direction. The other mechanism is that the nanoparticles align with the flow direction at high shear rates. At low shear rate, the magnitudes of the shear viscosity are dependent on the nanoclay concentrations and processing shear rate. Increasing nanoclay concentration leads to increases in shear viscosity. The viscosity was observed to deviate from Newtonian behaviour and exhibited shear thinning at a 3 wt.% concentration. It is possible that the formation of aggregates of clay is responsible for an increase in shear viscosity. Reducing the shear viscosity has positive benefits for downstream manufacturers by reducing power consumption. It was observed that all ii three nanoclays used in this project act as nucleation agents for crystallisation by increasing the crystallisation temperature from the melt and decreasing the crystallisation temperature from the solid and increasing the crystallisation rate, while retaining the melt temperature and glass transition temperatures without significant change. This enhancement in the thermal properties leads to a decrease in the required cycle time for manufacturing processes thus potentially reducing operational costs and increasing production output. It was observed that the nanoclay significantly enhanced the barrier properties of the PET film by up to 50% this potentially allows new PET packaging applications for longer shelf lives or high gas pressures. PET final products require high stiffness whether for carbonated soft drinks or rough handling during distribution. The PET/Somasif nanocomposites exhibit an increase in the tensile modulus of PET nanocomposite films by up to 125% which can be attributed to many reasons including the good dispersion of these clays within the PET matrix as shown by TEM images as well as the good compatibility between the PET chains and the Somasif clays. The tensile test results for the PET/clay nanocomposites micro-moulded samples shows that the injection speed is crucial factor affecting the mechanical properties of polymer injection moulded products.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is an excellent material for bottling water, beverages, edible oils and other liquids because it is light, tough and transparent. PET bottles are also extensively reused for storage of drinking water, beverages and other liquids and for solar disinfection of microbiologically unsafe drinking water in the tropics. In spite of the usefulness of PET bottles earlier works have reported leaching of antimony and acetaldehyde from the bottle matrix into the liquid contents. Both antimony trioxide and acetaldehyde belongs to Group 2B (possible carcinogens) in the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) carcinogen classification. Additionally acetaldehyde associated with alcoholic beverages (derived from alcoholic beverage and formed endogenously) has recently been upgraded to IARC Group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans). The research aims to assess the pattern and extent of antimony and acetaldehyde migration from British and Nigerian polyethylene terephthalate bottles into bottle contents under typical use and reuse conditions. The research compares the assessed extents of migration with the current regulations to determine whether the maximum acceptable levels of antimony and acetaldehyde are being exceeded and whether current regulations might need to be reassessed. To achieve these goals the pattern and extent of PET bottle use and reuse in Britain and Nigeria were appraised through survey. The survey revealed that new bottles with contents are typically stored prior to use for periods ranging between one and 7 days, with Nigerians storing for longer periods than British respondents. However storage of up to one year was reported. The extent of bottle reuse was high and similar for the two countries. Nevertheless Nigerian respondents reuse bottles for longer periods than British respondents. The survey findings together with relevant literature were used to design laboratory experiments that assessed the extent of antimony and acetaldehyde migration from PET bottles into water/beverages. A total of 82 brands of bottled water and soft drinks in plastic and glass bottles and in cartons were collected. A few samples from Nigeria in plastic pouches were collected. Materials used in bottling including glass and plastic bottle materials, metal and plastic bottle cap materials and plastic cap lining materials were collected. All samples were collected in supermarkets and shops in Britain and Nigeria except drinking water from taps which was collected in Britain only. Some bottles were aged for the purpose of studying the impact of bottle aging on chemical migration. Other bottles were stored with their contents to study the impact of long term storage of bottle contents on chemical migration. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterise PET bottle material and other materials associated with water and soft drink bottling. Antimony and other trace metals in water and soft drinks were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Antimony content of PET and other plastics was determined by microwave digestion and ICP-MS. Acetaldehyde content of water and soft drinks and PET were determined using headspace gas chromatography with flame ionisation detection (GC-FID). Accuracy and precision for determination of antimony and other trace elements in bottle materials and bottle contents were good as recoveries were around 100% and coefficients of variation were less than 15% for all analysis types. Accuracy and precision for determination of acetaldehyde in bottle materials and bottle contents were also good as recoveries were around 100% and coefficients of variation were less than 15% for all analysis types. Impact of long term storage, elevated temperatures, bottle thickness, carbonation, bottle aging and bottle size on migration of antimony and acetaldehyde were also assessed. All plastic bottle materials analysed were found to be PET. Bottle cap materials were either polyethylene or polypropylene. All plastic cap lining materials from Britain and some from Nigeria were found to be ethylene vinyl acetate/polypropylene copolymer. Plastic cap lining materials from some Nigerian soft drinks were identified as polyvinyl chloride. Glass bottle materials analysed were found to be soda-lime glass. Metal bottle caps were identified as tinplate, tin-free-steel coated with chromium or aluminium coated with chromium. The antimony concentration in 32 PET bottle materials from Britain and Nigeria were similar and ranged between 177 and 310 mg/kg with an average of 250±30 mg/kg. The concentration agrees well with the industry reported concentration of between 150 and 350 mg/kg. The concentration of residual acetaldehyde in 25 fresh PET bottle materials from Britain and Nigeria ranged between 0.95 and 12.52 µg/g. The average concentration in British and Nigerian soft drinks PET materials are 4.76 and 2.17µg/g respectively. Concentration of residual acetaldehyde was higher in soft drinks and still water PET materials than in sparkling water materials. The concentration of residual acetaldehyde decreases as the bottle wall material becomes older. Also the thinner the bottle walls the lower the concentration of residual acetaldehyde. Antimony concentration in 47 freshly purchased British bottled water and soft drinks ranged between 0.03 and 6.61µg/L with only one sample going above the EU acceptable limit. Concentrations of other trace elements measured were low except titanium which was detected at part per million levels in soft drinks. Lead content of a Nigerian soft drink in glass bottle stored for 2 months was above the EU acceptable limit for lead. At realistic temperatures of 40 and 60°C antimony concentration in the water remained below the EU acceptable limit even after 48 hours of exposure but the concentration exceeded the limit for most exposures at 80°C. Concentration of antimony in some Nigerian bottled water and soft drinks was above the EU limit after 11 months of storage at room temperature. Aged bottles leach lower amount of antimony than new bottles. Similarly larger bottles leach lower amount of antimony than smaller bottles. The average acetaldehyde concentrations found in British fruit juices, carbonated soft drinks, sparkling water and still water were 5113, 1458, 22 and 8 µg/L respectively. Acetaldehyde was not detected in water bottled in glass. The concentration of acetaldehyde in five fruit juice samples in PET bottles and carton was beyond the EU specific migration limit (SML) of 6mg/kg. Also the tolerable daily intake of acetaldehyde could be exceeded as a result of intake of some soft drinks and fruit juices. Acetaldehyde content in soft drinks increase with storage but the increase cannot be accounted for by the residual acetaldehyde in PET. Acetaldehyde was found to be outgassing from some bottles. It was also found to be capable of migrating from soft drinks into bottle wall. Without replenishment the concentration of acetaldehyde in solution decreases with time. The use of PVC cap lining in Nigeria as found in this study is a cause for concern as PVC is associated with health risk issues. The study recommends actions to ensure that antimony in fruit juices and other bottled products remain within the regulatory standard from bottling to consumption for the purpose of safeguarding the health of consumers. Glass used in bottling should be well scrutinized to ensure that it does not contain high levels of lead or other chemical substances that can cause harm to consumers through migration into contents. PET bottles can safely be used for solar water disinfection without the risk of antimony intake at concentrations above safe limits as water temperature achievable as the result of the technique doesn¿t go beyond 60°C. Also aged bottles are safer to use than new bottles because their chemical leaching was found to be lower than that of new bottles. This study recommends the reassessment of the absence of international guidelines for acetaldehyde in water and foods. The study also recommends that the amount of acetaldehyde that can be added to soft drinks as flavouring agent should be below the specific migration limit (SML) for migration of acetaldehyde from PET bottle into bottle contents. This is essential since the SML was designed to ensure that exposure to acetaldehyde, as a result of intake of bottled water and soft drinks in PET bottles, is below the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for acetaldehyde. As antimony was reported to go beyond the safe limits in some Nigerian bottled water and soft drinks after 11 months of storage this study discourages the use of bottle contents stored for a very long time. / Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom