L-ascorbic acid as an antioxidant additive in polyvinyl chloride compositions

Antioxidant additives and stabilizers are chemical substances frequently employed in many industries, such as food and polymer processing. Despite their distinct goals, we can identify some convergence in their functions, particularly in the realm of polymers and specific materials. One thing they all have in common is that antioxidants can act as stabilizers, particularly when preventing oxidation-induced degradation. In polymers and plastics, antioxidants are frequently used to prevent or slow polymer degradation due to oxidation processes. In the current work, ascorbic acid (Asc), as a natural antioxidant has been examined to determine whether it can be used in non-living environments, in the case of polymers. It was found that it exerts a significant thermal stabilization effect in the case of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC samples were prepared and tested against heat degradation by thoroughly mixing 0.5 g of PVC powder and different ratios of Asc, including 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, 10, and 20 wt% as a stabilizer in the reaction test tube for each experiment and transferring it into a degradation tube. The results indicate that the thermal stability (TS) values for all compositions start to increase with increasing antioxidant concentration. The TS values of Asc/PVC range from 19.5 to 42.4 min, where the lowest value was for pure PVC and the highest value was for the 20 wt% Asc, respectively. Asc has a clear effect on the thermal stability of PVC.