Polymer Additives

Plastic antioxidants (AO) are a class of chemicals with varying chemical compositions and methods of terminating oxidation. Primary antioxidants are added to the polymer to protect against degradation during the service life of the finished product.

Secondary antioxidants are added to the resin to reduce color formation and to provide processing stability during the pelletization and extrusion/molding processes.
ADEKA has many antioxidants – commodity type as well as high performance types. High Performance types are used for Polyolefins as well as Engineering Plastics like ABS, Nylon, PBT, PC, PC-ABS etc to improve heat stability, processability and colour retention. They also improve recyclability of the polymers.

Benefits - The benefits of ADEKA Plastic Antioxidants are:

• Heat Stability, Processability, and Weatherability:- ADEKA’s antioxidants are high performance products and are used for long term heat stability and weatherability. ADEKA Antioxidants help avoid discoloration of Engineering Plastics which are processed at high temperatures.
• Cost performance:- ADEKA’s high performance Antioxidant are effective at low loading.
• Hydrolytic Stability:- ADEKA has some antioxidants with good Hydrolytic stability.
• Colour Retention:- Our antioxidants suppress discolouration of polymers caused by thermal oxidation and light exposure. They also suppress discoloration caused by recycling.
• Many of ADEKA’s antioxidants are RoHS and REACH compliant.
• Most of our antioxidants are FDA compliant and can be used for food contact applications.

Nucleating agents (NA) are polymer additives. Polypropylene nucleating agents increase numbers of sites for crystal growth in the Polymer melt, hence the crystals become smaller compared to Polymer without the Nucleating Agents. In addition, this growth occurs faster and at a higher temperature (15°C to 200°C) than without the NA. This mechanism leads to many benefits.
 
ADEKA is one of the pioneers in this field and makes very high performance polypropylene nucleating agents. These give better cost performance than most competitive products.

Benefits- The benefits of ADEKA polypropylene nucleating agents for PP are:
 

• Decrease of Cycle Time:- ADK STAB Nucleating Agents increases crystallization temperature of PP, hence parts made from PP can be removed from the mold at higher temperature i.e. it decreases the cycle time and hence productivity is improved (Laboratory results showed 17% increment in productivity).
• Increases Flexural Modulus:- ADEKA Nucleating Agents increases the stiffness of the end product.
• Higher HDT:- Nucleating Agents enhance the Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT) of PP. Therefore, parts can be used in high temperature applications compared to un-nucleated PP.
• Visual Appeal:- ADK STAB Nucleating Agents provide excellent gloss and surface finish to the end product.
• Cost Effective:- ADEKA Nucleating Agents are effective at lesser concentration compared to conventional nucleating agents. As a result they are cost effective.
• Blooming and extractability:- ADK STAB Nucleating Agents have much less extractability compared to other Nucleating Agents. Result is less deposit on moulds and rolls.
• Compliance:- Many of ADK STAB Nucleating Agents are RoHS and REACH compliant. Most of them are FDA Approved.

Applications:

ADK STAB Nucleating agents are widely used in Injection Molding and extrusion grades of PP Homo-polymer and impact copolymer. The NA’s are available in Powder and Masterbatch form.

Mechanism – Thermoplastic Polymers often comes in intimate contact with a wide variety of metals and metallic compounds. Many of these contacts are inevitable; they may begin already with the polymer’s manufacturing process, for example- with Ziegler-Natta catalysts for the polymerization of olefins or any kind of polymer processing whereby contacts with hot metal surfaces in the presence of oxygen are unavoidable. In addition to that, there are numerous occasions where metallic compounds are deliberately or inadvertently (as impurities) added to thermoplastic polymers as stabilizers, lubricants, pigments or fillers and reinforcing agents. A further possibility lies in the practical use of a polymer as insulating material for wire and cables with copper conductors. The interaction between metals or metallic compounds and polymers leads to polymer degradation. It is influenced by number of factors, some of them are, nature of polymer, the kind of metal, its valency and its concentration, the structure of ligand or of the anion, environmental conditions to which polymer is exposed.

The general feature of metal deactivators is their polyfunctionality; this means they contain several ligand items like N, O, S, P, alone or in combination with functional groups such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, or carbamide. The efficiency of a ligand as a metal deactivator depends on the nature of metal ion being chelated. Deactivators form copper complexes with much less residual activity. Metal deactivators effectiveness is improved if; they have sufficient solubility or ease of dispersion, they have good compatibility to avoid exudation connected with loss of performance, they have high extraction resistance, they have low volatility under processing and service conditions, there is no discolouration by interaction with antioxidants or with colourants used for coding wires, Sufficient thermal stability under processing and service conditions, etc.    


Benefits - The benefits of our Metal Deactivators are,

1.ADK STAB metal deactivator system significantly improves the plastics thermo-oxidative stability and provides excellent heat stability to polymers in contact with metals.

2.ADEKA’s metal deactivators have excellent compatibility with polymers along with high extractions resistance. Hence, they are highly effective to retard the metal catalysts.

3.Our stabilizer systems have low volatility and have high thermal stability during processing and service conditions. 

4.ADK STAB metal deactivators do not discolour by interaction with antioxidants or with colourants.

5.Many of our deactivators are RoHS and REACH compliant.


Applications- ADK STAB Metal Deactivators are suitable for various polymers and plastics.