Plastisols of poly(vinyl chloride); particle size distribution, morphology, rheology, and mechanism of aging

Plastisols of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) are suspensions of fine resin particles in plasticizer with about a 50% resin volume fraction. Typically, the gross particle size ranges from about 15 to 0.2 μm and smaller, where the common practice of spray drying these resins dictates that the size ranges include agglomerates as well as the ultimate particles. In this work we have related the particle size distribution to the dynamic mechanical behavior with model plastisols prepared from various particle-size fractions of a commercial resin. This relationship, together with the microscopic observation of the particle dispersions, provided an interpretation of the plausible mechanisms of the viscoelastic response. The morphological observation of the particle aggregates, the changes of the particle size distribution during the aging, and the above viscoelastic study have established that deagglomeration is the dominant cause of the increase of viscosity during aging.