Ternary copolymers based on vinyl chloride-co-butyl acrylate-co-vinyl versatate with excellent elasticity, transparency and damping performance

Synthesizing poly(vinyl chloride- co -butyl acrylate- co- vinyl versatate) ternary copolymer via suspension polymerzation • The ternary copolymer can achieve a damping temperature range of 15–65 °C and a high tan δ max around 1.15. • The ternary copolymer exhibites outstanding transparency and excellent elasticity. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based damping materials are extensively utilized in low-temperature vibration attenuation owing to their excellent processability, mechanical properties, and cost-effectiveness. However, achieving both a broad damping temperature range and high mechanical ductility remains a significant challenge. To address this issue, this study synthesized ternary copolymers of vinyl chloride (VC) with butyl acrylate (BA) and various vinyl carboxylate monomers such as vinyl acetate (VAc), vinyl neononanoate (VV9), and vinyl neodecanoate (VV10) via suspension free radical copolymerization, aiming to systematically investigate the influence of alkyl side chain length and bulkiness on damping performance. The damping properties, thermal stability, and mechanical behavior of the resulting copolymers were evaluated through dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and tensile testing. The remarkable results showed that the damping temperature range and loss factor are highly reliant on the content of BA and vinyl versatate structural units, as well as the side chain length of vinyl versatate. In detail, the PVC based ternary copolymers with 44% BA units and 7% VV10 units can achieve a damping temperature range of 15–65 °C and a high tan δ max around 1.15 at 1 Hz. While all copolymers maintained exceptional tensile strength about 20 MPa and ductility with an elongation at break exceeding 390%. Meanwhile, the damping materials with a vinyl versatate units either VV9 or VV10 exhibited a high transparency. This work provides a novel and effective strategy for designing high-performance PVC-based damping materials with an extended service temperature range and robust mechanical integrity. Download: Download high-res image (423KB) Download: Download full-size image