A tough noncombustible material prepared by grafting of poly(2-ethylhexyl acrylate) with vinyl chloride

A noncombustible tough poly(vinyl chloride) (tPVC) was prepared by suspension‐grafted copolymerization of poly(2‐ethylhexyl acrylate) (poly‐EHA; elastomer) with vinyl chloride (VC). Elastomer (poly‐EHA) was prepared by emulsion, mainly homopolymerization of 2‐ethylhexyl acrylate at a temperature of 30 ± 0.1°C in the presence of a redox system and with the advantage of dosing the monomer into two portions. Grafted‐suspension copolymerization of poly‐EHA with VC was carried out at 54 ± 0.1°C, keeping other reaction conditions only slightly modified in comparison with those for the polymerization of pure VC. An optimum content of the incorporated poly‐EHA in PVC was found to be in the range 7.5–8.5 wt %, whereas notched toughness of 85–87 kJ m−2 was reached. Both below and above the found range of the content of poly‐EHA, the toughness decreases. A copolymer prepared by a direct‐emulsion copolymerization of 2‐EHA and VC (poly‐EHA‐co‐VC) exhibited worse mechanical properties than the copolymer prepared by two polymerization steps. On the basis of experimental results, effects of the reaction procedure on the properties of resulting material are described. In addition to good mechanical properties, tPVC also shows its noncombustibly. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 2355–2362, 2002