Synthesis characterization and analysis of bioplasticizer incorporated poly vinyl chloride films for healthcare packaging applications

Abstract

Packaging is a technology that employs materials and processes for containing, protecting, handling and transporting products. It plays a major role worldwide in various sectors, such as healthcare, food, electronics, etc. In recent years, the healthcare packaging field is booming because of the increasing demand and multiple medical products entering the market. Currently, in healthcare packaging, the most commonly used materials are polymers due to their ease of use and facile processability. Therefore, it is vital to have an excellent system in place that can hold healthcare and medical products intact with sustainable packaging materials. The healthcare industry mostly uses polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as the base polymer for packaging medical products. Although PVC has good mechanical and thermal properties, additives play a major role in bestowing its functionality. The additives that are used to process PVC films, can be divided into stabilizers and plasticizers. newlineStabilizers are mainly used to enhance the processability of the base PVC polymers. Plasticizers, such as Di-2-Ethylhexyl Phthalate (DEHP) and Di- Octyl Phthalate (DOP), are used to impart flexibility to PVC products; however, these are toxic to the environment and humans. Therefore, these plasticizers can have the same effect on the product that is packed using them and hence there is a need to replace it entirely. Although alternatives for PVC plasticizer are available in the market, they have failed to replace DEHP entirely and only a partial replacement has been achieved so far. Thus, a complete replacement can be implemented only when appropriate functional additives are identified. This research work aims to identify a bio plasticizer that can replace the toxic DEHP/DOP plasticizers used in healthcare packaging applications. For this purpose, the oils extracted from Hibiscus rosa-sinensis leaves, namely Raw Hibiscus Oil (RHO), and that from cinnamon barks, namely Raw Cinnamon Oil (RCO) are considered for experimental investigation. The chemical composition of the extracted bio-oils was analyzed by tandem gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was observed that RHO was rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and RCO had high amounts of aldehydes and oxygenated monoterpenes. The physiochemical properties of RHO, including density, specific gravity, refractive index, free fatty acid content, acid value, saponification value, iodine value, and peroxide value, were determined according to the AOCS methods. The epoxidation of RHO was done by the ion-exchange resin method in a one-pot epoxidation process; the epoxidized oil is referred here as Epoxidized Hibiscus Oil (EHO). To further enhance the performance of EHO, the ring-opening reaction was carried out, and the resultant oil was named ring-opened epoxidized hibiscus oil (REH) . newline