Green plasticizers

这个应用程序的想法始于去年，当时加拿大通用塔有限公司的一位代表找到我们，询问我们对增塑剂降解的研究。他们特别感兴趣的是开发更安全的增塑剂，以添加到聚氯乙烯配方（PVC）中，他们在许多应用中使用。增塑剂是低分子量的有机化合物，对塑料的有效加工和性能调整至关重要。已经确定，这些化合物在塑料的使用和处理过程中会浸出。由于这些化合物对生物体的负面影响，最近人们对它们的使用提出了重大关切。此外，这些化合物被降解为有毒代谢物，在环境中持续存在，我们在各种城市和工业场所的样品中观察到其中的几种。这些结果预示着对传统增塑剂使用的监管将会增加。鉴于增塑剂在各种产品生产中的大规模重要性，这种发展将特别成问题。我们建议开发“绿色”增塑剂，它将像塑料配方中的传统增塑剂一样有效和经济地赋予所有理想的特性，但本质上是无毒的，在降解过程中不能产生有毒和持久的中间体，并且在使用或处置后不会大量浸出。我们已经确定了某些有机化合物，它们的结构与市售增塑剂相似，但它们的某些化学特性在有害降解产品的生产中起着关键作用。与我们的工业伙伴合作，加拿大通用塔候选增塑剂将被合成，如有必要，测试和表征，以确保它们与正常配方兼容，赋予所需的材料特性，本身是环保的，并被普通微生物和哺乳动物细胞转化为无毒产品。

The idea for this application started last year when a representative of Canadian General Tower Ltd. approached us about our research with plasticizer degradation. They are particularly interested in the development of safer plasticizers to be added to polyvinylchloride formulations (PVC) which they use in many applications. Plasticizers are low molecular weight organic compounds that are essential for effective processing and tailoring of properties in plastics. It has been well established that these compounds leach from plastics during use and upon disposal. Significant concerns about the use of these compounds have been raised recently because of their negative impacts on organisms. Furthermore, these compounds are degraded into toxic metabolites, which are persistent in the environment and we have observed several of them in samples taken from a variety of urban and industrial sites. These results foreshadow increases in the regulation of the use of traditional plasticizers. Such developments will be particularly problematic given the large-scale importance of plasticizers in the production of a wide variety of products. We propose to develop "green" plasticizers that would impart all of the desirable characteristics as effectively and economically as do conventional plasticizers in plastics formulations, but would be intrinsically non-toxic, incapable of generating toxic and persistent intermediates during degradation and would not leach out to a significant extent during use or after disposal. We have identified certain organic compounds that are similar in structure to commercially available plasticizers but which certain chemical characteristics that play a pivotal role in the production of hazardous degradation products. In collaboration with our industrial partner, Canadian General-Tower candidate plasticizers will be synthesized, if necessary, tested and characterized to ensure that they are compatible with normal formulations and impart the desired material properties, are themselves environmentally benign and are transformed by common microorganisms and mammalian cells into non-toxic products.