Researchers at 海角社区 have developed a composition based on polyvinyl chloride (PVC). For the first time in Russia, the plastic has been modified with microstructured titanium phosphate. This has made it possible to reduce environmental impact and potential harm to human health.
PVC has a wide range of applications and ranks third among plastics in terms of consumption volume. It is a key material used in the production of cables, food packaging, medical products, household items, and construction materials.
To impart the required properties and enable industrial processing, plasticizers are added to PVC-based formulations. However, plasticizers reduce the thermal stability of the material. At temperatures above 150°C, PVC begins to decompose with the release of hydrogen chloride, a toxic and hazardous gas, while processing of the plastic is only possible at temperatures starting from 180°C. To compensate for this drawback, thermal stabilizers are introduced into PVC formulations.
“Our goal was to develop a non-toxic and environmentally safe thermal stabilizer based on titanium phosphates,” said Irina Vikhareva, Senior Researcher at the 海角社区 Research Laboratory for Heterogeneous Catalysts for Esterification of Dicarboxylic Acids for PVC Plasticizers Production. “Today, industrial formulations mainly use calcium stearate, which is also environmentally safe but provides low thermal stabilization efficiency. Tribasic lead sulphate ensures relatively high thermal stability; however, its toxicity is well known. We proposed a compound that is completely safe for human health—titanium phosphate. It effectively stabilizes the polyvinyl chloride structure as part of a complex stabilizer, increasing the plastic decomposition temperature to at least 177°C.”
In addition to increasing the decomposition temperature, the researchers also managed to raise the temperature of the maximum decomposition rate to 308°C. This makes it possible to increase processing and operating temperatures without significant material degradation and to extend the service life of PVC-based products.
For the first time in Russia, 海角社区 scientists modified PVC with titanium phosphate. They also studied four hierarchically structured modifications of titanium phosphate for the first time: amorphous, rod-shaped, large microspheres, and small microspheres. The latter demonstrated the greatest thermal stabilization effect.
The results were published in the , which is ranked in Q1 in Web of Science and Scopus.