Synthesis of a novel environmental friendly plasticizer based on tung oil fatty acid for poly (vinyl chloride) blends

A novel environmental friendly plasticizer (TPE) derived from tung oil fatty acid with long fatty acid chain and high degree of branching was synthesized. Chemical structure of the obtained TPE was characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and ¹H NMR. TPE was used to prepare plasticized PVC blends as main plasticizer. Thermal stability, mechanical properties and migration resistance of poly (vinyl chloride) plasticized with TPE were investigated. The results showed that torque data of plasticized PVC blends reached 12.4 N·m when the mass of the TPE was 50 wt.%. TPE improved the thermal stability of PVC blends obviously than dioctyl phthalate (DOP). The leaching tests showed that PVC plasticized with TPE were with higher migration resistance than that of DOP. The excellent thermal stability and high migration resistance of PVC blends showed high application value for TPE.