Products
Innoleics offers a diverse range of biobased products with applications spanning plastics, rubber additives, coatings, and lubricants. However, our primary focus lies in serving as primary plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) applications.
Raw Materials
Our main raw material is soybean oil, which is submitted to
chemical modifications such as transesterification, interesterification, acylation, and epoxidation. These reactions yield a variety of molecular types and sizes, which are properly adjusted to present ideal performance in each target application.
The products obtained can be defined as chemically modified fatty acid esters. Final products are submitted to proper quality control to comply with a rigorous set of specifications.
Epoxidized Plasticizers
In epoxidized plasticizers, such as all products in the Innoleics line, the oxirane ring acts in synergy with metallic stabilizers, especially Ba, Cd, Ca, e Zn. “The synergistic combination of barium-cadmium salts with epoxy compounds greatly extended the usefulness of clear plasticized PVC, outdoors as well as indoors”
(2).
This function
increases thermal and UV stability of PVC (1).
Oxirane Index and Compatibility
It is important to notice that the greater the oxirane index, the greater the compatibility with PVC, increasing plasticizer efficiency. This is achieved through ideal condition in the epoxidation process. It is important to notice that epoxidized plasticizers present
greater efficiency, hence, lower concentrations, to achieve the same hardness when compared to traditional plasticizers. Also, lower Iodine Index improves overall life span and compatibility over time
(1), as it is a measure of the double bonds in the final molecules, which is directly associated with long term stability.
Epoxy plasticizers with lower molecular weight will have greater compatibility retention when compared to ESO
(1)
It is also noted that epoxy plasticizers confer a
greater resilience to the final compound, increasing both elongation and tension at break when compared to hardness-adjusted compounds made with traditional plasticizers.
(1) J. T. Lutz, Jr. and Edward J. Wickson, Handbook of PVC Formulating, Epoxy Plasticizers, pp. 253-262.
(2) Cowell, Elmer E. and Joseph R. Darby (to Monsanto Co.), "Method of Stabilizing Halogen Containing Resins with Cadmium Salts and Epoxy Esters", U.S. Pat. 2,671,064 (March 2,1954)
