Reduction of the Additives Migration from Poly Vinyl Chloride Films by the Use of Permanent Plasticizers

Abstract

This aim of this work is to study the partial replacement of the plasticizer ordinarily used di-octyl phtalate (DOP) by the permanent plasticizers ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) and acrylonytrile-bu- tadiene-styrene (ABS) in order to reduce migration of additives initially contents in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) stabilized with expoxidized sunflower oil (ESO). Migration tests with agitation to 40˚C in sunflower oil and ethanol at 15% were made. Migration phenomenon was studied on the basis of the PVC samples mass variations, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. The results showed the effectiveness of the approach consisting in the partial substitution of DOP by plasticizers of polymeric nature. The fol-lowing order concerning the migration of additives was found: DOP (40) > DOP:EVA > (30/10) DOP: ABS (30/10). Furthermore, all the measured values of overall migrations were lower than the maximum allowable overall migration: 10 mg∙dm^2.