Polyvinylchloride Case Study

Polyvinylchloride (PVC) film and sheets are used in a variety of application especially for packaging because their permeability, transparency, tear and impact properties are important. The effect of unmodified and titanate treated nano-CaCO3 on the microstructure as well as on the mechanical, barrier, optical properties of PVC films, prepared by solution casting method were studied. The tensile strength and barrier properties of nano-CaCO3/PVC increase with increasing loading of CaCO3 nanoparticles due to increased interfacial contact area and enhanced interfacial adhesion between CaCO3 nanoparticles and PVC matrix.

Titanate treated nano-CaCO3/PVC composites had superior tensile and barrier performance compared to those of untreated nano-CaCO3/PVC composites, while the transparency of the film was retained. Key Words-: Polyvinylchloride, Nanoparticles, FTIR, Titanate Coupling Agent, Interfacial Adhesion, CaCO3.
It can be seen from Figure 3 that when CaCO3 nanoparticles are added to PVC matrix the elongation to break does not change much up to 5 phr. However, the elongation to break decreases with the addition of titanate treated CaCO3 nanoparticles in the PVC matrix.

The treated nanoparticles cause the film to become brittle even at loadings of 2 phr and the elongation to break continues to decrease up to 5 phr. The effect of CaCO3 nano particles loading on the Young’s modulus of PVC matrix and the nanocomposites is shown in Figure 4. PVC films containing untreated nano-filler show only minor improvement of about 17% in the modulus values. Young’s modulus in nano-composites does not undergo much change in the elongation to break values; this can be associated with the disappearance of plastic deformation of the polymer