Beer and wine may one day come in aesthetically pleasing glass bottles that protect them from damaging light.
CSIRO has developed a coating for glass bottles that screens out ultraviolet and visible light which prematurely ages beer, wine, vegetable oils and pharmaceuticals leading to poor shelf life and loss of flavour.
The problem with bottles
Green or clear bottles do not block ultraviolet or visible light.
Currently, only amber glass offers protection from this ‘light-strike’.
However, amber glass has an image problem when it comes to packaging premium quality product and it doesn't look as fresh and vibrant as other colours.
What CSIRO did
Contrary to popular belief, green bottles are just as ineffective as clear bottles when it comes to screening out damaging light.
CSIRO developed a protective coating that screens out wavelengths from near ultraviolet all the way to green.
It is also anti-scuff and scratch-resistant.
The 'sunscreen' is made up of trillions of minuscule particles (approximately 30 millionths of a millimetre in diameter).
The particles absorb the damaging wavelengths of light while allowing the benign yellow to red wavelengths to pass through.
The coating yields the same light protection to a bottle’s contents as the traditional amber-coloured bottle while allowing consumers to see the contents in an attractive green or blue bottle.
The technology also allows coloured pigments to be added to the 'sunscreen'.
This could lead to a dazzling array of coloured, protected bottles.
Outcomes
CSIRO's sunscreen coating has the potential to revolutionise the way bottles are produced because of the novel way in which it is applied – during the mass production process.
The protective layer is sprayed on to the bottles on the production line after they emerge from the annealing oven.
A pilot plant was built to scale up the coating application technology.
Watch A sunscreen for bottles (Video).
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