Phosphates as plasticizers

The effect of adding a low-molecular-weight substance to a polymer is to lower its glass transition temperature. The effect is well known, and is exploited in practice to obtain flexible products of poly(vinyl chloride) by adding relatively nonvolatile diluents such as dibutyl phthalate or tricresyl phosphate as plasticizers to the polymer. 

Cellulose esters (cellulose acetate, cellulose acetobutyrate) can be formulated with halogenated phosphoric esters (such as tris(j -chloroethyl) phosphate) as plasticizer-like flame-retardants. 

In 1860, Hofman described the "metamorphosis" of vinyl bromide to pol3winyl bromide and Baumann repeated this "conversion" with vinyl chloride in 1872. However, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was not patented until 1912, when Klatte used sunlight to initiate the polymerization of vinyl chloride. Klatte produced the monomer by the mercuric chloride catalyzed addition of HCl to acetylene. He also suggested the use of camphor and triphenyl phosphate as plasticizers for PVC. 

More recently, citric acid is being used for metal cleaning, in detergents substituting phosphate, as plasticizers in its ester forms, for secondary oil recovery, and as a buffer/ absorber in stack gas desulfurization. The use... 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ , ]

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