The Effects of Epoxidized Acrylated Castor Oil (EACO) on Soft Poly (vinyl chloride) Films as a Main Plasticizer

In this work, an environmentally friendly type plasticizer was introduced. The synthesis consisted of two steps. In the first step, castor oil (CO) was acrylated and then the acrylated castor oil (ACO) was epoxidized with the presence of formic acid and hydrogen peroxide in the second step. The epoxidized acrylated castor oil (EACO) was characterized by FTIR and 1H-NMR techniques. The EACO was used as a main plasticizer to obtain plasticized PVC materials and compared with DOP. The results showed that EACO improved polyvinyl-chloride (PVC) plasticization performance and reduced Tg from 81.06°C to 1.40°C. Plasticized PVC materials with EACO showed similar mechanical properties and better thermal stability than DOP. EACO had better volatility stabilities, migration and solvent extraction in PVC than DOP. EACO can be used to replace DOP to prepare soft films.

Cardanol Groups Grafted on Poly(vinyl chloride)-Synthesis, Performance and Plasticization Mechanism

Internally plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) materials are investigated via grafting of propargyl ether cardanol (PEC). The chemical structure of the materials was studied by FT-IR and ¹H NMR. The performace of the obtained internally plasticized PVC materials was also investigated with TGA, DSC and leaching tests. The results showed that grafting of propargyl ether cardanol (PEC) on PVC increased the free volume and distance of PVC chains, which efficiently decreased the glass transition temperature (Tg). No migration was found in the leaching tests for internally plasticized PVC films compared with plasticized PVC materials with commercial plasticizer dioctyl phthalate (DOP). The internal plasticization mechanism was also disscussed according to lubrication theory and free volume theory. This work provides a meaningful strategy for designing no-migration PVC materials by introducing cardanol groups as branched chains.