What Plasticizers Do & How They Affect Properties | Osborne
Plasticizers act like a lubricant among polymer chains to reduce rigidity. Without them, synthetic polymer materials would be too brittle and rigid for any practical purpose. For example, plasticizers give rubber its extensibility. Approximately 90% of all plasticizers are used in polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.
Plasticizer - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
Plasticizers are low molecular weight substances added to a polymer solution to promote its plasticity and flexibility. Therefore, the plasticizers make the polymer solution more suitable for the application of film coating. There should be chemical similarities between the polymers and its plasticizers.
Plasticizers – Benefits, Trends, Health, and Environmental
Plasticizers soften the PVC to make it flexible and bendable. This opens up a huge range of possibilities for new applications. One of the main benefits of plasticizers is the durability they confer onto PVC applications, which can ensure high performances for up to 50 years.
Natural-based plasticizers and biopolymer films: A review
The type and the amount of plasticizer strongly affect the film formation from polymeric aqueous dispersions [26]. Hydrophilic plasticizers dissolve in the aqueous medium when they are added to polymer dispersions and if added in high concentration they can lead to an increase in water diffusion in the polymer.
Plastic Additives: Polymer Stabilizers, Plasticizers and
Plasticizers can increase the flexibility, extensibility, and plasticity of plastics because of their ability to weaken the van der Waals forces between polymer molecules, thereby increasing the mobility of polymer molecular chains and reducing the crystallinity of polymer molecular chains.
- How do plasticizers affect the physical properties of a polymer?
- Additionally, the incorporation of plasticizers into the polymer can affect some physical properties of the polymer such as the viscosity, degree of crystallinity, glass transition temperature (T g), hardness, and density [15, 35].
- Can plasticizers reduce material degradation over time?
- The design of new plasticizers compatible with the polymer at high concentrations, tailored to be effective in lowering the glass transition temperature, and with a low tendency to migration could considerably reduce material degradation over time.
- What are plasticizers used for?
- Plasticizers are an important class of low molecular weight non-volatile compounds that are widely used in polymer industries as additives . The primary role of such substances is to improve the flexibility and processability of polymers by lowering the second order transition temperature, the glass transition temperature (Tg).
- Why do polymers need plasticizers?
- The plasticizers reduce the glass transition temperature, and the viscosity of the polymer also enhances the flexibility and processability of polymer materials. The main problem of these additives is that, over time, they migrate from the polymeric matrix and exude to the surface of polymeric matrix.
- What factors affect plasticizer efficiency?
- Internal mobility (flexibility): This parameter plays a crucial role in determining plasticizer efficiency. This is true for various polymers unless polymer crystallinity is involved. The reduction of Tg is proportional to the temperature difference between the Tg of the polymer and plasticizer.
- Why are plasticizers important in biopolymer-based films & coatings production?
- In biopolymer-based films and coatings production, plasticizers are also essential additives since they can improve flexibility and handling of films, maintain integrity and avoid pores and cracks in the polymeric matrix .