Water states and thermal processability of boric acid modified poly(vinyl alcohol)

To further improve the processability of water plasticized poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), boric acid (BA), which can rapidly form reversible crosslinked structure with the hydroxyl groups of PVA, was adopted as a modifier, and the water states, thermal performance, and rheological properties of modified PVA were investigated. The results showed that ascribing to the formation of the crosslinked structure between PVA and BA, the content of nonfreezing water in system increased, indicating that the bondage of PVA matrix on water enhanced, thus retarding the tempestuous evaporation of water in system during melt process and making more water remained in system to play the role of plasticizer. Meanwhile, this crosslinked structure shielded part hydroxyl groups in PVA chains, leading to the further weakening of the self‐hydrogen bonding of PVA, and guaranteeing a lower melting point and higher decomposition temperature, thus obtaining a quite wide thermal processing window, i.e., ≥179°C. The melt viscosity of BA modified PVA slightly increased, but still satisfied the requirements for thermal processing, thus reinforcing the flow stability of the melt at high shearing rate. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43246.