A novel green plasticizer, cyclohexyl ester-capped glutaric acid oligomeric lactate (CGOL) with many poly(lactic acid) (PLA) matrix repeating units, applicable for plasticizing both poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and PLA, was designed and developed through a two-step esterification reaction route. Due to the growing concerns about the environment and health, we used biobased raw materials to synthesize the biobased plasticizer with the hope of potentially replacing petroleum-based plasticizers that are already widely used. The molecular structure of CGOL was confirmed, and then CGOL was blended with PVC or PLA for performance testing. Compared with commercial plasticizers, it had better comprehensive plasticization performance, showing high thermal stability, mechanical stability, and migration stability in both PVC and PLA polymers, which could be demonstrated by thermogravimetric analysis, tensile tests, and migration resistance test results. Among all PVC blends containing 50 phr plasticizer, CGOL plasticized PVC films exhibited the highest elongation at break (736.3%) and initial degradation temperature (T i, CGOL-50 = 273.5 °C), the lowest glass transition temperature (T g = 24.8 °C), and minimal migration in various environments, better than that of commercial ATBC, DOTP, and DOP. As for PLA blends, CGOL plasticized PLA films outperformed PLA/ATBC films in terms of comprehensive performance. Overall, CGOL demonstrated potential as a novel green substitute plasticizer for preparing flexible products of PVC and PLA.

The current research efforts in the plasticizer industry should focus on finding renewable biomass chemical feedstocks to synthesize non-toxic and effective bio-based plasticizers in order to adapt to the concept...

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Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) is one of the most widely applied plastics in the world, with inherent mechanical brittleness and inflexibility in room temperature. With the growing concern for health and safety, especially in some fields (children's toys, food packaging, medical supplies) that require high‐safety plastics, there is an urgent need to develop phthalate‐free high‐performance green PVC products. Herein, by blending novel green oligomeric lactate plasticizers 1, 4‐cyclohexane dimethanol oligomeric lactate‐levulinate (CDOL‐L) and 1,4‐cyclohexane dimethanol oligomeric lactate‐levulinic acid ketal ester (CDOL‐LKE), highly stretchable and highly stable PVC‐based plastics were prepared successfully. CDOL‐L and CDOL‐LKE were synthesized by a green route of esterification and ketalization using biomass as the main raw material, and their structures were jointly confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1H NMR and TOF‐MS. Through performance testing, CDOL‐L or CDOL‐LKE plasticized PVC material were determined to have triple high stability (thermal, mechanical and migration stability) superior to DOP, DOTP and ATBC plasticized PVC. The PVC plasticized by CDOL‐L exhibited break at elongation as high as 833.0% at 50 phr addition and 877.1% at 60 phr addition. Moreover, PVC plasticized by 50 phr CDOL‐LKE exhibited relatively better thermal stability (Ti,CDOL‐LKE = 271.4°C) for the special ketal structure on the plasticizer. In conclusion, CDOL‐L and CDOL‐LKE showed potential to substitute traditional plasticizers and pointed a new direction for the preparation of high‐performance PVC‐based plastics.