What are plasticizers

•What are plasticizers?

Plasticizers are additives that increase the flexibility or workability of the material that they are added to.
Almost all plasticizers are compounds, generally referred to as ester, which are synthesized from acids and alcohol and mainly used to soften plastics such as vinyl chloride (VC). The acids include phthalic acid, trimellitic acid and adipic acid. The alcohol used includes octanol, nonanol and mixed higher alcohol. Combining these acids and alcohols has created a variety of plasticizers. The plasticizers presented at this website have been selected from hundreds of options after thorough testing and screening. They have all been demonstrated as being the most appropriate for their uses after thoroughly investigating both health and cost performance.

•Softening hard vinyl chloride

VC is a hard resin at room temperature because VC molecules attract each other to maintain their shape. Heating VC makes the momentum of the molecules greater than their mutual attraction, resulting in increasing the intermolecular distance and thus softening the VC. If plasticizer molecules are then introduced, the VC molecules are hindered from coming closer. Even if the temperature returns to normal, they remain soft. This is how plasticizers keep VC soft; the technical term is plasticization.

VC molecules are electrically biased with positive or negative polarity. Plasticizer molecules consist of a polar portion, which is positively or negatively charged, and a nonpolar portion, which is not charged. VC and plasticizers electrically bond at this polar portion and yet remain soft because the nonpolar potion expands the distance between VC molecules.

•Performance required for plasticizers

The basic properties required for plasticizers include a large molecular weight and high boiling point. If the former is too small or the latter is too low, then the plasticizer will evaporate during the hot VC formation process. The plasticizers are required to have both polar and nonpolar portions, as explained above. The result is that ester is appropriate for plasticizers. Among many esters, those providing the following performance are selected and used as plasticizer:

	(1)	compatibility and workability
	(2)	plasticization efficiency
	(3)	durability (low volatility, low transitivity and oil resistance)
	(4)	cold-, heat-, weather- and contamination resistance
	(5)	electrical insulation

•Safety

People are becoming more and more conscious and concerned about the environmental effects and safety of chemicals. In response, plasticizers, produced in large amounts and used widely, have been rigorously evaluated and some problems to be checked found.

The Japanese Plasticizers Industry Association, in conjunction with American and European plasticizer industries, has implemented long-term investigations, testing and research to assess and analyze the plasticizer safety. The results confirmed that phthalate does not adversely affect human health or the environment under the current use conditions.

We will continue to strive to make these already safe plasticizers even safer, enabling their convenient use in the future so consumers can continue to save money by using the most appropriate tools at hand.

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