Metal dicarboxylates as thermal stabilizers for PVC

Different metal dicarboxylates such as calcium glutarate, zinc glutarate, calcium sebacate and zinc sebacate were investigated in this paper as thermal stabilizers (without and with calcium stearate and pentaerythritol as costabilizers) of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). The thermal stability of the PVC films was determined by two different methods which are visual color comparison and measurement of HCl release from heated pellets. Both zinc dicarboxylates and calcium dicarboxylates exhibited good thermal stability. With respect to stabilizing performance, zinc glutarate (ZnGa) was more effective than zinc sebacate (ZnSe), particularly in the presence of a large amount of pentaerythritol. Similarly, calcium glutarate (CaGa) was more effective than calcium sebacate (CaSe). And the relative order of stabilizing effectiveness of metal dicarboxylates was as follows: CaGa > CaSe > ZnGa > ZnSe. Moreover, the Ca-Zn complex thermal stabilizer and the Pe-Zn complex thermal stabilizer were also studied. It was found that no more than 20% of the zinc compound exhibited better stabilizing performance.