BLOWING AGENTS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOAMED HALOGEN- CONTAINING ORGANIC PLASTICS
Field of the invention The present invention refers to the area of halogen-containing organic plastics and concerns a method for the production of foamed plastics as well as a suitable blowing agent mixture therefore.
State of the art Foamed plastics have a wide range of applications as they show decisive advantages compared with high-density plastics because of weight and cost savings. In particular, halogen-containing organic polymers like poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) are versatile materials for manufacturing sections, tubes and sheets. For example, they are applied preferably in form of foam core tubes, celluka or free foamed sheets and foamed sections.
The preparation of these materials can be based on direct gassing processes or chemical or physical blowing processes, as well as combinations thereof. The physical methods comprise the expansion of compressed gases added to the polymers like previously compressed CO2 or nitrogen, as well as vaporization of volatile liquids like methylene chloride, pentane or fluorochlorinated hydrocarbons, for example. However, these methods have lost importance in the last years because of their ecologically undesirable effects .
Therefore, chemical methods, in which the blowing process is induced by - the usually thermal decomposition of- added blowing agents, are used more and more often.
Direct gassing processes as described in the European Patent EP 1144490 Bl, in which nitrogen gas is injected during the extrusion of poly(vinyl chloride) using an injection system at the extruder, also have far less ecologically undesirable effects. In US Patent US 5 158 986 the physical method is applied in form of a supercritical fluid as blowing agent. These processes have the drawback of a relatively complex and expensive apparatus assembly, which has to be adjusted specifically.
Therefore, chemical blowing agents are used more often. The European Patent EP 0461745 Bl discloses, for instance, the use of amides, especially azoamides, which are highly dispersed in the product to be extruded and which release nitrogen on thermal decomposition.
The combination of chemical and mechanical methods, which are realised in the European Patent Application EP 0151652 Al by thorough stirring and mixing of a PVC composition during generation of the gas on heating, leads to a good and even dispersion of the gas and thus to a homogeneous density distribution of the plastic.
However, just those proven chemical blowing methods lead with halogen-containing organic plastics, particularly with PVC, to products showing an unsatisfying low density because of the chemical structure of the polymers. The proportion of crystalline areas in these polymers melting only at very high temperatures results from a higher density of the extrusion product. However, the thermal stability of these plastics doesn't allow an appropriate increase of the processing temperature. In the patent EP 0461745 Bl blowing agents are therefore applied in combination with organic tin compounds as thermal stabilizing agents. Another solution is proposed in the patent application EP 0107064 Al, in which the blowing agent is combined with a so called "nucleating agent" which increases the ratio of closed cells in the foam. However, if the proposed azodicarbonamide is chosen as nucleating agent, the dynamic thermal stability of the foam is reduced so that higher amounts of stabilizing agents are necessary to ensure a sufficient thermal stability of the product.
Therefore it is the task of the present invention to provide a method leading to extruded products of foamed halogen-containing organic plastics characterized by a low density concurrent with high thermal stability.
Description of the invention Object of the present invention is a method for producing foamed halogen-containing organic plastics, wherein a blowing agent mixture comprising chemical blowing agents, polyols and salts of perchloric acid in form of a physical mixture is added to the plastic-
containing pre-mixture before the extrusion and after homogeneous dispersion the resulting mixture is manipulated accordingly.
A further object of the present invention is a blowing agent mixture comprising chemical blowing agents, 0,01 to 35 % polyols and 0,01 to 35 % salts of perchloric acid by weight based on the blowing agent mixture, as well as the use of this blowing agents combination for the production of foamed halogen-containing plastics.
Surprisingly it was found, that a combination of chemical blowing agents, polyols and salts of perchloric acid added to the plastic-containing pre-mixture in form of a physical mixture, provides foams with lower density than the usual use of perchlorate and polyol in the stabilizing agent.
Halogen-containing organic plastics
Halogen-containing organic plastics, which can be foamed using the blowing agent compositions according to the present invention, are particularly chlorine-containing polymers and their regrinds. Examples for this kind of chlorine-containing polymers and their regrinds, which have to be stabilized, are: polymers of vinyl chloride, vinyl resins comprising vinyl chloride motifs in their structure, copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl ester of aliphatic acids, particularly vinyl acetate, copolymers of vinyl chloride with esters of acrylic and methacrylic acid and with acrylonitrile, copolymers of vinyl chloride with diene compounds and unsaturated dicarboxylic acids or their anhydrides, like copolymers of vinyl chloride with diethyl maleate, diethyl fiimarate or maleic anhydride, post- chlorinated polymers and copolymers of vinyl chloride, copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinylidene chloride with unsaturated aldehydes, ketones and others like acrolein, crotonaldehyde, vinyl methyl ketone, vinyl methyl ether, vinyl isobutyl ether and the like; polymers of vinylidene chloride and their copolymers with vinyl chloride and other polymerisable compounds; polymers of vinyl chloroacetate and dichlorodivinyl ether; chlorinated polymers of vinyl acetate, chlorinated polymeric esters of acrylic acid and alpha-substituted acrylic acid; polymers of chlorinated styrenes, for example dichlorostyrene; chlorinated polymers of ethylene; polymers and post-chlorinated polymers
of chlorobutadiene and their copolymers with vinyl chloride; as well as mixtures of said polymers among themselves or with other polymerisable compounds.
Within the scope of the present invention PVC means also copolymers or grafted polymers of PVC with polymerisable compounds like acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate or ABS, wherein the polymers can be suspension, mass or emulsion polymers. Preferably the polymer is a PVC homopolymer, in particular a suspension polymer or mass polymer.
Chemical blowing agent
Chemical blowing agents suitable for the method according to the present invention are organic azo and hydrazo compounds, tetrazoles, oxazines, sulfohydrazines as well as soda and sodium bicarbonate and blends of these compounds with further additives like urea, waxes and zinc oxide. Especially suitable are azodicarbonamide and sodium bicarbonate.
Salts of perchloric acid
Perchlorates according to the present invention are metal salts and ammonium salts of perchloric acid. Examples for perchlorates suitable according to the present invention are those with the formula M(ClO4)n, wherein M represents particularly ammonium, Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr, Zn, Ti, Al, La or Ce. n represents according to the valency of the cation M 1, 2 or 3. Lithium, potassium and sodium perchlorate are preferred.
The perchlorates can be employed in an amount ranging from 0,001 to 35, for instance, preferably from 0,01 to 20, and more preferably from 1 to 15 parts per weight based on 100 parts per weight blowing agent mixture.
Polyols
Polyols suitably employed for the present invention are pentaerythritol, dipentaerythritol, tripentaerythritol, bistrimethylolpropane, inositol, poly(vinyl alcohol), bistrimethylolethane, trimethylolpropane (TMP), sorbitol, maltitol, isomaltitol, lactitol,
Lycasin®, mannitol, inositol, lactose, Leucrose®, tris-2-hydroxyethyl isocyanurate (THEIC), Palatinit®, tetramethylol cyclohexanol, tetramethylol cyclopentanol, tetramethylol cylcopyranol, glycerol, diglycerol, polyglycerol or thiodiglycerol as well as reaction products of these polyols with ethylene oxide and/or propylene oxide. Especially suitable are pentaerythritol, dipentaerythritol, TMP and THEIC.
The polyols can be employed in an amount ranging from 0,01 to 35, preferably from 0,1 to 30 and more preferably from 1 to 25 % by weight based on 100 % by weight blowing agent mixture.
Examples
1. Preparation of the blowing agent composition according to the present invention In a mixer of the Henschel Company were introduced 1000 g SB 453 (blowing agent, Co. Clariant) and 200 g trimethylolpropane (TMP). This mixture was homogenized for 30 seconds at 25 °C with 800 rotations per minute. Hereafter 200 g of a 50 % solution of sodium perchlorate in water were added and the mixture was homogenized for 4-V2 minute with 800 rotations per minute. 2. Preparation of the dry blend A dry blend was prepared by mixing PVC powder and various additives in a mixer of the Henschel Company (amount of compounds = 3 kg, heating temperature = 120 °C, afterwards cooling down); the composition is given in table 1. Table 1: composition of PVC -dry blends
To the example Bl (comparative example) 0,5 % by weight blowing agent SB 453 (blowing agent, Co. Clariant) were added under stirring at 60 °C based on the whole amount of the dry blend.
To the example B2 (according to the present invention) 0,7 % by weight of the blowing agent composition according to the present invention were added under stirring at 60 °C based on the whole amount of the dry blend, so that this batch also contained a total of 0,5 % by weight blowing agent .
3. Preparation of flat sheets The dry blends were extruded on a twin-screw extruder of the company Weber in form of a flat sheet. (Parameters of extrusion: speed = 15 rpm; machine load = 67 %, temperature = 180 °C). The thermal stability of the extruded flat sheets was determined using the congo red method at 200 °C and the density was determined according to ASTM D 792.
Table 2: Results
The extrusion product prepared with the blowing agent according to present invention and according to the method of the present invention is characterized by a considerably lower density however concurrent with a constant thermal stability.