PVC(Polyvinylchloride): Applications And Properties

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Polyvinylchloride, in other name which is acronym of it; PVC is one of the most common thermoplastic material in polymer market. PVC has very specific properties. Becuase of these properties, PVC finds very interesting application areas in engineering and daily life. In here, we explain the properties of PVC polymers and applications of it because of these properties.

What Are The Applications Of PVC?

Actually, commercial PVC polymer has wide range of physical and mechanical properties because of the additives that are mixed with PVC. Generally, these physical and mechanical properties of PVC changed with the addition of plasticizers. Without plasticizers, much more brittle and hard PVC is obtained. With the addition of plasticizers, more ductile and elastic PVC is obtained. Because of this versatility of PVC, there are lots of application areas;

For example PVC is used in food packaging, films and sheet production because of its ductile property with plasticizers.
PVC again is used in the production of rigid pipes for sewer, irrigation or construction. In these applications, the used PVC must be rigid and strong.

But PVC has a drawback that can be degrade under sunlight. Heat and light affect PVC in a bad situation. To overcome this, some kinds of additives are added to improve the resistance to these conditions.

What Are The Properties Of PVC?

Polyvinylchloride has chemical symbol of (C2H3Cl)n. ‘n’ means the number of monomers in polymer chain. The production process of PVC is the addition polymerization. Because of PVC is a carcinogenic material, special care must be taken in the phase of production. Glass transition temperature of PVC is around 81C and melting temperature of PVC is around 212C. In most brittle structure, PVC has an elongation ratio of 2% of its original shape. There is no degree of crystallinity of PVC, becuase it has fully amorphous structure. Tensile strength of PVC is 40 MPa and modulus of elasticity of PVC is around 2800 MPa.

The application areas and the properties of PVC can be summarized like above. Do not forget to leave your comments and questions about PVC and its properties and applications below. Your precious feedbacks are very important for us.