Network formation by epoxidised soybean oil in plastisol poly(vinyl chloride)

Epoxidised soybean oil, ESBO, is a well known additive used in plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) since it functions both as plasticizer and as stabilizer. This paper describes what happens to the material when ESBO is used as primary plasticizer in plastisol- and in suspension PVC without any additional stabilizer. When 50 ph ESBO was added to 100 ph plastisol PVC and then aged in a Werner Mathis oven at 180 °C for various lengths of time, the E-modulus increased with ageing time due the formation of a crosslinked network induced by a polymerization reaction of the epoxy groups in the ESBO. The network and the PVC were analyzed by NMR which showed that reaction between PVC and ESBO had occurred, and that the network consisted primarily of ESBO. The same experiment performed with suspension PVC instead of plastisol PVC did not result in any crosslinking of the ESBO. The ring opening of the epoxy which starts the polymerization of ESBO is most likely catalyzed by an additive used in the polymerization of plastisol PVC.