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Title: Highly Stretchable, Ultratough, and Multifunctional Poly(vinyl chloride)-Based Plastics via a Green, Star-Shaped Macromolecular Additive

Abstract

As one of the most prolifically produced plastics in the world, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) suffers from mechanical brittleness and low toughness. Compared with traditional phthalate-type plasticizers, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)-based plasticizers are especially attractive due to their “green” nature and capabilities to achieve improved physical properties. Herein, a stretchable and ultratough PVC-based plastic was achieved by a star-shaped PCL copolymer with a rigid, amino-containing, branched polylactide (N-BPLA) core and a soft PCL shell, that is, RN-SPCLs. With an optimal feed ratio of the CL monomer and N-BPLA core, the RN-SPCL2 can efficiently lower the glass transition temperature (Tg) of PVC plastics, achieving the transition from the “glassy” to “rubbery” state at ambient temperature. The obtained RN-SPCL2/PVC not only shows high extensibility, that is, 453%, but also maintains close to 80% of tensile strength of neat PVC, that is, 30.1 MPa, which is much higher than the previously reported plasticized PVCs. Its overall toughness reaches 92.7 MJ/m3, being more than 50-fold higher than neat PVC and 2 to 3 times higher than linear PCL or dibutyl phthalate plasticized PVCs. The important role of star-shaped architecture with a rigid core and flexible PCL shell for RN-SPCL2 in achieving highly stretchable and ultratough PVC plasticsmore » is systematically investigated. More interestingly, the as-prepared RN-SPCLs also endow PVC plastics with photoluminescence property and allow homogeneous dispersion of nanosized TiO2 for significantly enhancing the anti-UV capability.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Tianjin Univ., Tianjin (China). School of Science, Dept. of Chemistry
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Chemical Sciences Division
  3. Tianjin Univ., Tianjin (China). School of Science, Dept. of Chemistry; Tianjin Chengjian Univ., Tianjin (China). School of Science, Tianjin Engineering Technology Center of Chemical Wastewater Source Reduction and Recycling
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City
OSTI Identifier:
1797637
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Macromolecules
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 54; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 0024-9297
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Oxides; Plastics; Tensile strength; elastomers; polymers

Citation Formats

Chen, Wei-Guang, Wei, Hai-Jie, Luo, Jiancheng, Chen, Yu, and Cao, Peng-Fei. Highly Stretchable, Ultratough, and Multifunctional Poly(vinyl chloride)-Based Plastics via a Green, Star-Shaped Macromolecular Additive. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.1c00029.
Chen, Wei-Guang, Wei, Hai-Jie, Luo, Jiancheng, Chen, Yu, & Cao, Peng-Fei. Highly Stretchable, Ultratough, and Multifunctional Poly(vinyl chloride)-Based Plastics via a Green, Star-Shaped Macromolecular Additive. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.1c00029
Chen, Wei-Guang, Wei, Hai-Jie, Luo, Jiancheng, Chen, Yu, and Cao, Peng-Fei. Fri . "Highly Stretchable, Ultratough, and Multifunctional Poly(vinyl chloride)-Based Plastics via a Green, Star-Shaped Macromolecular Additive". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.1c00029. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1797637.
@article{osti_1797637,
title = {Highly Stretchable, Ultratough, and Multifunctional Poly(vinyl chloride)-Based Plastics via a Green, Star-Shaped Macromolecular Additive},
author = {Chen, Wei-Guang and Wei, Hai-Jie and Luo, Jiancheng and Chen, Yu and Cao, Peng-Fei},
abstractNote = {As one of the most prolifically produced plastics in the world, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) suffers from mechanical brittleness and low toughness. Compared with traditional phthalate-type plasticizers, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)-based plasticizers are especially attractive due to their “green” nature and capabilities to achieve improved physical properties. Herein, a stretchable and ultratough PVC-based plastic was achieved by a star-shaped PCL copolymer with a rigid, amino-containing, branched polylactide (N-BPLA) core and a soft PCL shell, that is, RN-SPCLs. With an optimal feed ratio of the CL monomer and N-BPLA core, the RN-SPCL2 can efficiently lower the glass transition temperature (Tg) of PVC plastics, achieving the transition from the “glassy” to “rubbery” state at ambient temperature. The obtained RN-SPCL2/PVC not only shows high extensibility, that is, 453%, but also maintains close to 80% of tensile strength of neat PVC, that is, 30.1 MPa, which is much higher than the previously reported plasticized PVCs. Its overall toughness reaches 92.7 MJ/m3, being more than 50-fold higher than neat PVC and 2 to 3 times higher than linear PCL or dibutyl phthalate plasticized PVCs. The important role of star-shaped architecture with a rigid core and flexible PCL shell for RN-SPCL2 in achieving highly stretchable and ultratough PVC plastics is systematically investigated. More interestingly, the as-prepared RN-SPCLs also endow PVC plastics with photoluminescence property and allow homogeneous dispersion of nanosized TiO2 for significantly enhancing the anti-UV capability.},
doi = {10.1021/acs.macromol.1c00029},
journal = {Macromolecules},
number = 7,
volume = 54,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Apr 02 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Fri Apr 02 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}

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