Abstract
Most acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin is plagued by an unpleasant odor attributed to the high residual volatile organic compound (VOC) content. This paper primarily aimed to solve the odor issue of ABS resin by effectively reducing the VOC content. To that end, a synthesis of ABS resins was optimized through a supercritical extraction process while evaluating multiple novel chain transfer agents (linear dimer of α-methyl-styrene, methyl 3-mercaptopropionate, and dodecyl mercaptan). ABS resin obtained through a α-methyl-styrene chain transfer agent demonstrated the lowest odor. Moreover, it had the least amount of VOC content which was three times lower than when dodecyl mercaptan was employed. To improve the supercritical extraction process, an orthogonal test was designed to optimize four main process parameters: extrusion temperature, residence time, vacuum degree and extractant dosage. The most optimal conditions were found to be 250 °C extrusion temperature, one minute residence time, vacuum degree of minus 99 KPa, and 1.5% CO2 extractant dosage.
Highlights
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin has recently attracted significant attention from the consumer markets, especially automobiles, small household appliances, and 3D printing
Consumers are becoming more concerned about their health and prefer to use items fabricated from materials without an odor or harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Several research efforts on how to reduce VOC as well as the odor of the resin and their blends were reported in the literature
Summary
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin has recently attracted significant attention from the consumer markets, especially automobiles, small household appliances, and 3D printing. Consumers are becoming more concerned about their health and prefer to use items fabricated from materials without an odor or harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). An increasing number of stringent environmental and consumer-related regulations are introduced worldwide on the control of odor and VOC content in ABS products. The development of ABS resin with low odor and low VOC content has become a major research area in the plastics industry [1,2]. Several research efforts on how to reduce VOC as well as the odor of the resin and their blends were reported in the literature. Villberg et al [3] reported that the source of polypropylene (PP)
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