How much do you know about PVC?

2023-10-23

PVC was first made 'unintentionally' in 1872 by German chemist Eugen Baumann. He exposed vinyl chloride gas sealed in a tube to sunlight and produced a white solid called PVC. In 1913, German chemist Friedrich Klatte received the first patent for polymerizing PVC using sunlight. By World War I, Germany was producing several flexible and rigid PVC products. They were used as a replacement for corrosion-resistant metals.

The Characteristics of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

It is a white, brittle solid material available in powder form or granules. Some of the most significant properties of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) are:

  1. Density: PVC is very dense compared to most plastics (specific gravity around 1.4)
  2. Economics: PVC is readily available and cheap.
  3. Hardness: Rigid PVC ranks well for hardness and durability.
  4. Strength: Rigid PVC has excellent tensile strength.

Economical, versatile polyvinyl chloride (PVC, or vinyl) is used in a variety of applications in the building and construction, health care, electronics, automobile and other sectors, in products ranging from piping and siding, blood bags and tubing, to wire and cable insulation, windshield system components and more.

Polyvinyl Chloride is made from one of three emulsion processes:

  1. Suspension polymerization
  2. Emulsion polymerization
  3. Bulk polymerization

What are the limitations of polyvinyl chloride?

  1. Poor heat stability
  2. Properties can change with time, due to plasticizer migration
  3. Flexible PVC has lower chemical resistance than rigid PVC
  4. Rigid PVC has low continuous service temperature of 50°C

PVC is used in the production of hundreds of products that consumers encounter in everyday life, and many more that are encountered less frequently but are nevertheless important in construction, electronics, healthcare and other applications. PVC is used in these applications because of its low cost and desirable physical and mechanical properties. It is fabricated efficiently into a wide range of both rigid and flexible products. PVC also has inherent flame resistance. Substitutes for PVC materials may be available, but often the alternative materials and processes are not as efficient or substitution costs are high.

PVC is the world’s third-largest thermoplastic by volume after polyethylene and polypropylene.