| Abstrakt: |
Phthalate esters such as DOP, DINP, and DIDP are predominantly used in PVC Wire & Cable jacket applications. Of late, there is an increasing drive in the market place to find alternatives to these phthalates. Even though commercially available non-ortho phthalates such as dioctyl terephthalates (DOtP) and hydrogenated phthalates (Hexamol-DINCH) work in various PVC applications, our results show that they do not meet thermal heat aging requirements for most jacket applications except for the very lowtemperature rated cable. The jacket properties of two different grades of DOW ECOLIBRIUM™ plasticizers, classified according to their performance in weight loss upon heat aging, are compared against the ortho-phthalates, non ortho-phthalates, and some other commercially available bio-based plasticizers. The critical comparative data that are collected include thermal stability for the compounds, shore hardness, imaged and aged tensile properties, plasticizer compatibility, low-temperature flexibility, and volume resistivity. The results show that between the two different DOW ECOLIBRIUM™ grades, it is possible to meet requirements for PVC jacket standards in various geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
