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Plasticization of amorphous polystyrene by volatile organic compounds

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Abstract

The plasticizing effect of 4 model volatile compounds (n-hexane, toluene, p-xylene, and ethylbenzene), able to be sorbed on polystyrene (PS) was studied. A large weight fraction range was investigated (up to 0.35) using differential scanning calorimetry. Mathematical modeling, using Fox, Kelly-Bueche, Chow and Gordon-Taylor models, was performed to model the behavior of the glass transition temperature of PS after VOC sorption. A strong plasticization of PS was evidenced by a significant reduction in the glass transition temperature of the binary mixtures (T gm). Among the four studied molecules, the linear one, n-hexane, displayed a better plasticizing efficiency than the aromatic ones, which lay in the same range. Indeed, a 15 % (w w−1) n-hexane content in PS decreased the T gm by 84 K. The Gordon-Taylor model was the best model to fit the experimental data for all the volatile organic compounds tested.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the French National Agency for Research (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) for the research project SafeFoodPack Design (ANR-10-ALIA-009) and all the partners involved in this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Agrosup Dijon, UMR PAM, 1 Esplanade Erasme, 21000, Dijon, France

    Ashish A. Kadam, Thomas Karbowiak, Andree Voilley & Frederic Debeaufort

  2. Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, IUT-Dijon, BP 17867, 21078, Dijon, France

    Jean-Pierre Gay & Frederic Debeaufort

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  1. Ashish A. Kadam
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  2. Thomas Karbowiak
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  3. Andree Voilley
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  5. Frederic Debeaufort
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Correspondence to Frederic Debeaufort.

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Kadam, A.A., Karbowiak, T., Voilley, A. et al. Plasticization of amorphous polystyrene by volatile organic compounds. Polym. Bull. 73, 1841–1853 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-015-1580-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-015-1580-4

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