Combined effect of linseed oil and gum rosin as natural additives for PVC

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was plasticized with epoxidized linseed oil (ELO) an further added with triethylene glycol ester of gum rosin (TEGR) as natural viscosity increasing agent. Although, the addition of both additives resulted in some colour changes, since TEGR induced red tone and ELO produced an amber tonality, all formulations showed high brightness and transparency. FTIR was used to study the changes in the plastisol chemical structures due to the addition of both natural additives. The microstructure of plastisols, studied by SEM observations, further confirmed that ELO and TEGR presented good compatibility with PVC resin, particularly when a mixture of ELO and TEGR was used. Therefore, changing the proportion of both natural additives allows designing tunable plastisols employing renewable materials. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.