Mechanistic Investigation of Additives Separation in Polyolefins and the Solvents Required for Separation

Regarding the role of additives in polymer stability and the bound between polymer and the additives, it is needed to employ reliable methods to separate them since many of additives may cause some errors in analysis of the polymer sample as a result of their bound to the polymer. The methods employed to measure the additives in the polymers and rubbers include direct measurement method, separation, HPLC and chromatography. This paper investigates the separation methods for additives including chemisorbed amides/ plasticizers, antioxidants, UV absorbers, amines and odour and tai forming each of which having a specific role within the polymer. This paper employs separation methods like fractional extraction and fractional precipitation. The study shows that fractional extraction has a more applicability for separation of the additives in polymers. In addition, the solvents required to separate additives of polyolefins including ethanol, chloroform, hexane, toluene and ether are investigated here and the test procedure is also given. It should be noted that each polyolefin has its own specific method for separation. Therefore the solvent, temperature, time and other items mentioned for the method should be applied carefully to achieve desirable results