Effects of Plasticizing on Mechanical and Viscous Characteristics of Poly(vinyl alcohol): A Comparative Study between Glycerol and Diethanolamine

Although plasticizing materials by modification with small-molecular chemicals has been extensively utilized in the industrial community, processing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at high concentrations (CPVA) or a degree of polymerization (DP) remains challenging. Optimization conditions is one means addressing this issue. In study, two types frequently used plasticizers, glycerol (GLY) and diethanolamine (DEA), are chosen to plasticize PVA resin DP 2400. Both PVA/plasticizer films possess excellent optical transmittance mechanical ductility, whereas blended DEA exhibit higher strength than PVA/GLY films. The viscosity variation temperature (Top)–CPVA space monitored real-time viscous flow testing, demonstrating that more effective for reducing PVA, which should improve processability, facilitating film-forming from concentrated solutions. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations molecular dynamics simulations illustrate PVA/DEA system lower binding energy, longer hydrogen bond length, isotropic diffusion coefficient, indicating stable network homogenous dispersion plasticizer, leading good solution fluidity performance. This study significant guiding design manufacture optically transparent, high-performance as polarizer precursor.