What causes the smell from camping articles (such as tents and rucksacks) which are made of materials coated with PVC plastisol? The plastisol contains a stabiliser based on barium and zinc.
Are there reactions between adhesion promoters (e.g. isocyanate) and colorants in the material polyamide 66) as this might be expected to give rise to a smell of amine? On the other hand could the odour come from plasticizers if there is no stabilisation by antioxidants?
An unpleasant odour always used to occur with PVC items (films, fabrics and textile coatings) when dibutylphthalate was used as a plasticizer. This plasticizer was used because of its low cost. Lt decomposes continuously, especially in sunlight, yielding traces of butyric acid. As the plasticizer di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DOP, dioctylphthalate) has numerous advantages and is nowadays hardly any more expensive, it is currently used almost exclusively. lt does not decompose to yield any odorous fragments.
Nevertheless it is advisable to use a stabiliser in PVC combinations. The most advantegeous are low molecular weight epoxide compounds or epoxide plasticizers of which there are several types. Suitable epoxide compounds are, for example epoxidebutyl-, epoxidehexyl-, and epoxideoctyl-stearate and also epoxided soya oil,
PVC Odour
Blog, Updated at: 2:50 PM
