Green plasticizers

这种应用的想法始于去年，当时加拿大通用塔有限公司的一位代表向我们介绍了我们对增塑剂降解的研究。 他们对开发更安全的增塑剂特别感兴趣，这些增塑剂将添加到他们在许多应用中使用的聚氯乙烯配方（PVC）中。 增塑剂是低分子量有机化合物，其对于有效加工和定制塑料中的性质是必不可少的。 已经确定的是，这些化合物在使用过程中和处置时会从塑料中浸出。 最近，由于这些化合物对生物体的负面影响，人们对使用这些化合物表示了极大的关注。 此外，这些化合物被降解为有毒代谢物，这些代谢物在环境中具有持久性，我们在从各种城市和工业场所采集的样本中观察到其中几种。 这些结果预示着对传统增塑剂使用的监管将有所增加。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，其将赋予与塑料制剂中的常规增塑剂一样有效和经济的所有期望特性，但本质上是无毒的，在降解期间不能产生有毒和持久的中间体，并且在使用期间或处置后不会浸出到显著的程度。 我们已经鉴定出某些有机化合物，其结构与市售增塑剂相似，但其某些化学特性在有害降解产物的产生中起关键作用。 在我们的工业合作伙伴的合作下，加拿大通用塔公司将在必要时合成候选增塑剂，并对其进行测试和表征，以确保它们与正常配方相容，并赋予所需的材料特性，它们本身是环境友好的，并由常见的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.