The Latest Supply Chain Disruption: Plastics
The plastics made from these chemicals are used in every kind of product imaginable — from food packaging, appliances, smartphones, and car parts to exercise equipment and roller skates. Combine...
Press Information Bureau
India is committed to take action for mitigation of pollution caused by littered Single Use Plastics. In the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly held in 2025, India had piloted a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution, recognizing the urgent need for the global community to focus on this very important issue.
A new initiative to fight plastic waste is working. | World
Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel chain, recently announced it would stop supplying plastic toiletries to guests by 2025. Amazon committed to eliminating single-use plastic packaging across its operations in India. And at the local level, social enterprises are already delivering concrete change.
The drive toward sustainable packaging | McKinsey
Article (PDF-2 MB) Sustainability—particularly regulatory and public concerns around single-use packaging waste—is combining with other powerful trends 1 to drive major changes in consumer packaging. Regulators are moving on the issue, and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies and retailers are proactively making bold commitments to
Plasticizer
The molecules of plasticizer take control over mobility of the chain - a polymer chain does not show an increase of the free volume around polymer ends. If plasticizer/water creates hydrogen bonds with hydrophilic parts of the polymer, the associated free volume can be decreased. [clarification needed] [6]
- Why does adding a plasticizer molecule increase the free volume?
- Adding a plasticizer molecule increases the free volume per total volume due to a proportional increase in end groups. The free volume theory explains the lowering of the glass transition temperature with an increase in free space within the polymer.
- How do plasticizers work?
- It was commonly thought that plasticizers work by embedding themselves between the chains of polymers, spacing them apart (increasing the "free volume"), or swelling them and thus significantly lowering the glass transition temperature for the plastic and making it softer.
- How can plasticizers be used in industrial applications?
- External plasticization using low molecular weight plasticizers is the most widely applied approach in industrial applications. The glass transition temperatures and the mechanical properties (elastic modulus) of CA systems with different plasticizer contents are reported in Table 2.
- How does plasticizer affect the mobility of a polymer chain?
- The mobility of a polymer chain is more complex in the presence of plasticizer than what the Flory–Fox equation predicts for a simple polymer chain. The molecules of plasticizer take control over mobility of the chain - a polymer chain does not show an increase of the free volume around polymer ends.
- What are plasticizers used in PVC & other plastics?
- Plasticizers used in PVC and other plastics are often based on esters of polycarboxylic acids with linear or branched aliphatic alcohols of moderate chain length. These compounds are selected on the basis of many critieria including low toxicity, compatibility with the host material, nonvolatility, and expense.
- What makes a good plasticizer?
- Concerning external plasticization, it turned out that a plasticizer, to be successful in CA, should be a low molecular weight ester able to interpose the polymer chains, with short apolar alkyl chains and some polar groups able to interact with the polymer.