Effect of the particulate morphology of resin on the gelation process of PVC plastisols

Abstract

Abstract The gelation process of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastisol is very important to ensure the quality of the product and is affected by the type of resins, plasticizers, and other additives. In this study, the gelation process of the as-prepared PVC plastisol was characterized by measuring the evolution of vibrational viscosity with temperature or time using a vibrational viscometer. Furthermore, the effect of some commercial resins with different particulate morphologies on the gelation process was investigated by synchronously combining scanning election microscopy and laser particle size analyses. The results of this study proved that the particle size distribution and the aggregation degree of the secondary particles of a resin are the key factors affecting the gelation process. For the resin with bimodal particle size distribution, the closer the aggregation of the secondary particles, the slower the gel speed; however, an opposite behavior was observed for the resins with unimodal particle size distribution.