Studies On The Cellulose Acetate Plasticized With Citrate Ester

Cellulose acetate (CA) derives from plant cellulose and is one of the environmentally benign materials with biodegrable ability, which has excellent transparency and mechanical properties and has the most widespread application areas in the cellulose derivative. The intermolecular force of cellulose acetate is rather drastic because its molecular chain has lots of polar hydroxyl groups and acetyls. Cellulose acetate melt difficultly flows and easily themal decomposes in the melt processing. As a result, it restricts the application of the material. This paper has studied the plasticizers (tributyl citrate, triethyl citrate, glyceryl triacetate, diethyl phthalate) placed their effects on the cellulose acetate melt processing and disscussed the plasticizers effects on the mechanical properties, rheological, transparency, thermal properties, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectrum and plasticizers migration rate of cellulose acetate.The results showed:The efficiency of plasticizer plasticized with CA was GT>DEP>TEC>TBC and the contents of TBC be supposed to less than 30%. With the plasticizers content increasing in the stysem, the strength and modulus gradually decreased, however, the break elongation and impact strength gradually incerased. The thermal stability was TBC>TEC>DEP>GT and the plasticizer migration rate was GT>DEP>TEC>TBC in the same loading plasticizers, respectively.The mechanical and rheological properties of cellulose acetate(CA) blends, plasticized with triethyl citrate(TEC) and glyceryl triacetate(GT), were investigated in this study. Combining the two plasticizers, in the blends, may have a synergistic effect with respect to mechanical properties, expecial the GT content in the plasticizers up to 40%. The rheological properties of CA were effectively improved, when the GT content in the plasticizers exceeded 20% at the total loading of combined plasticizers keep on 25% in the blends. The thermal analysis data showed that the properties of CA plasticized with combined plasticizer were much better than those of CA plasticized with TBC or GT exclusively. With the contents of GT increasing, the plasticizer migration rate gradually increased.The mechanical and rheological properties of cellulose acetate(CA) blends, plasticized with tributyl citrate(TBC) and glyceryl triacetate(GT), were investigated in this study. When GT was introduced, progressively, into TBC plasticized blends, the tensile strength decreased, while the toughness and rheological properties of CA were effectively improved, when the GT content in the plasticizers exceeded 20% at the total loading of combined plasticizers keep on 25% in the blends. The thermal analysis data showed that the properties of CA plasticized with combined plasticizer were much better than those of CA plasticized with TBC or GT exclusively. With the contents of GT increasing, the plasticizer migration rate gradually increased.