Plasticizer-range alcohols Plastics

Most higher alcohols of commercial importance are primary alcohols secondary alcohols have more limited specialty uses. Detergent range alcohols are apt to be straight chain materials and are made either from natural fats and oils or by petrochemical processes. The plasticizer range alcohols are more likely to be branched chain materials and are made primarily by petrochemical processes. Whereas alcohols made from natural fats and oils are always linear, some petrochemical processes produce linear alcohols and others do not. Industrial manufacturing processes are discussed in Synthetic processes. 

Plasticizer Range Alcohols. Commercial products from the family of 6—11 carbon alcohols that make up the plasticizer range are available both as commercially pure single carbon chain materials and as complex isomeric mixtures. Commercial descriptions of plasticizer range alcohols are rather confusing, but in general a commercially pure material is called "-anol," and the mixtures are called "-yl alcohol" or "iso...yl alcohol." For example, 2-ethyIhexanol [104-76-7] and 4-methyl-2-pentanol [108-11-2] are single materials whereas isooctyl alcohol [68526-83-0] is a complex mixture of branched hexanols and heptanols. Another commercial product contains linear alcohols of mixed 6-, 8-, and 10-carbon chains. 

Table 4. Prices and Manufacturers of Plasticizer Range Alcohols...

The 13—carbon tridecyl alcohol is usually considered to be a plasticizer range alcohol because of its manufacture by the oxo process and its use in making plasticizers. On the other hand, some types of linear 9- and 11-carbon alcohols find major appHcation in detergents. 

The sales brochures of the manufacturers describe the plasticizer range alcohols available on the merchant market (18). Typical properties of several commercial plasticizer range alcohols are presented in Table 8. Because in most cases these ate mixtures of isomers or alcohols with several carbon chains, the properties of a particular material can vary somewhat from manufacturer to manufacturer. Both odd and even carbon chain alcohols are available, in both linear and highly branched versions. Examples of the composition of several mixtures are given in Table 9. 

The plasticizer range alcohols are utilized primarily in plasticizers, but they also have a wide range of uses in other industrial and consumer products, as... 

Other Plastics Uses. The plasticizer range alcohols have a number of other uses in plastics hexanol and 2-ethylhexanol are used as part of the catalyst system in the polymerization of acrylates, ethylene, and propylene (55) the peroxydicarbonate of 2-ethylhexanol is utilized as a polymerization initiator for vinyl chloride various trialkyl phosphites find usage as heat and light stabHizers for plastics organotin derivatives are used as heat stabHizers for PVC octanol improves the compatibHity of calcium carbonate filler in various plastics 2-ethylhexanol is used to make expanded polystyrene beads (56) and acrylate esters serve as pressure sensitive adhesives. 

A.luminum Jilkyl Chain Growth. Ethyl, Chevron, and Mitsubishi Chemical manufacture higher, linear alpha olefins from ethylene via chain growth on triethyl aluminum (15). The linear products are then used as oxo feedstock for both plasticizer and detergent range alcohols and because the feedstocks are linear, the linearity of the alcohol product, which has an entirely odd number of carbons, is a function of the oxo process employed. Alcohols are manufactured from this type of olefin by Sterling, Exxon, ICI, BASE, Oxochemie, and Mitsubishi Chemical. 

Alcohol(s), 10 488. See also C12 alcohol Detergent range alcohols Ethanol Fuel alcohol Higher aliphatic alcohols Plasticizer range alcohols Polyhydric alcohols... 

The plasticizer-range alcohols are largely used as feedstock for production of high molecular weight diesters of phthalic, adipic, azelaic, and sulftiric acids. All these are used primarily in plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other plastics. The plastics industry also uses them as additives for heat stabilization, to control the viscosity of PVC plastisols, ultraviolet absorbers, flame retardants, and antioxidants. They are also found in synthetic, lubricants, agricultural chemicals, and defoamers. 

The Increasing Acceptance of Plasticizers with Better Cost-Performance than POP. While the breakthrough n-butyralde-hyde technology of the mid seventies will tend to make new 2EH capacity competitive with existing plasticizer range alcohol plants, there has been a trend away from DOP in the U.S. 

United States production of plasticizer range alcohols was estimated to be 690,000 t in 1988 (11), 44% of which was 2-ethylliexanol. Domestic... 

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