What Are Plasticizers With Examples? What Are Plasticizers Used For?
What Are Plasticizers With Examples?
Plasticizers are additives that are used to increase the flexibility, transparency, durability and longevity of plastic products.
Examples of common plasticizers include phthalates, adipates, citrates and trimellitates. Phthalates are often used in products like vinyl flooring and wall coverings to help give them a more flexible texture.
Adipates are used in PVC cables and children’s toys as they have a low toxicity level compared to other plasticizers.
Citrates are commonly found in adhesives, cosmetics and food packaging for their mild odor.
Trimellitates provide good heat stability when added to plastics which means they can be useful across a range of applications including sealants, varnishes and coatings.
What Are Plasticizers Used For?
Plasticizers are common additives used to soften, increase flexibility and reduce brittleness of plastics.
They are primarily used in the production of PVC products like pipes, cables, and food wraps.
Plasticizers enhance the durability and safety of plastic products while decreasing their production cost.
Plasticizers also help make hard plastics less brittle and more flexible which in turn increases their lifespan and decreases energy consumption that would otherwise be necessary for purifying or replacing these products.
What Chemicals Are Plasticizers?
Plasticizers are chemicals added to plastics to increase their flexibility, durability and longevity.
Many types of plasticizers are used in a variety of applications ranging from food packaging and medical device components to toys, wiring and automotive parts. Commonly used plasticizers include phthalates, adipates, sebacates, citrates, benzoates and terephthalates.
These chemicals are typically composed of a combination of organic compounds such as alcohols, esters or acids that interact with the polymer molecules in the plastic for increased flexibility.
In some cases plasticizers can also be used to reduce flammability and improve color retention of the finished product.
Why Use Plasticizers In Concrete?
Plasticizers are added to concrete to increase workability without reducing the strength and durability of the concrete.
They allow for easier placing, consolidation, finishing and curing of concrete when used at the right percentages.
Plasticizers can also help reduce water demand, preventing shrinkage cracks as well as reduce drying shrinkage in concrete while improving its cohesiveness, pumpability, segregation resistance and flowability.
Additionally, plasticizers can help reduce permeability in order to improve durability, fire resistance and freeze-thaw performance of the concrete.
Why Is Water A Plasticizer?
Water is a plasticizer because it helps to reduce the stiffness and brittleness of plastics. By adding water, the molecular structure of the plastic changes and weakens, thus making it more pliable and easier to manipulate for extrusion or injection molding.
Furthermore, water’s presence also prevents crystallization which can cause embrittlement of polymers, which further helps to improve its low temperature flexibility.
In addition, water-plasticized materials are easier to heat seal than their dry counterparts due to increased flexibility.
Finally, when properly formulated with other ingredients such as surfactants, plasticizers can make even tough materials softer and more flexible.
What Is Plasticizer Made Of?
Plasticizers are typically made from substances that contain either some type of fatty acid (such as castor oil or beeswax) or phthalates, a group of chemicals made up of different types of esters.
Phthalates are usually the most widely used plasticizers due to their ability to lower the viscosity and flexibility of a material without impacting its strength or durability.
Plasticizers also change certain properties such as UV resistance, flame retardancy, water vapor transmission and electrical insulation.
They can also be used to adjust the surface tension allowing for better adhesion between two surfaces, like paint and plastic.
What Are The 3 Types Of Plasticizers?
Plasticizers are chemicals used to make plastic materials more pliable and flexible. There are three common types of plasticizers – phthalates, adipates, and benzoates.
Phthalate plasticizers are the most widely used in products such as PVC flooring, wire insulation, wall coverings, and medical tubing.
Adipate plasticizers offer a good balance of performance and cost for applications such as industrial sealants, paints, and coatings.
Benzoate plasticizers are commonly found in adhesives, sealants, cosmetics, medicines, fragrances and food packaging as they have superior thermal stability.
How Do Plasticizers Work In PVC?
Plasticizers are molecules that can be released from a polymer, such as PVC, to give it flexibility and reduce its brittleness.
Plasticizers increase the plasticity or fluidity of the material by reducing its inter-molecular cohesion or viscosity.
They work by making the PVC molecules “slippery”, decreasing the attraction between them, which allows them to move more freely and crystallize less easily under pressure.
Plasticizers can be organic acids, esters, polyethers, polyesters, glycols and other compounds that have an affinity for PVC; they migrate into the polymer matrix and remain dispersed throughout its structure.
They also act as lubricants to reduce friction between polymer chains which further reduces cohesive forces and increases elasticity.
Plasticizers make up anywhere from 8-60% of flexible PVC applications allowing for greater strength and improved processing characteristics.
