Abstract
Polymeric materials, in particular PVC, can find vari- ous industrial utilizations thanks to the use of plasticizers added during their processing. The most famous applications include wires and cables, coatings, flooring, paintings, packag- ing. . . After some generalities concerning plasticization theories and the description of plasticized petro- and bio-based poly- mers, this review details the well-known different petro-based plasticizers and more particularly phthalates which represent the most important category of PVC plasticizers. Owing to migration problems, impact on the human health and the envi- ronment, alternative candidates have been developed by researchers. Renewable resources and their wastes offer a large platform for the design of bio-based plasticizers using polysaccharidic or lipidic structures. In an in-depth analysis, the bio-based plasticizer structures, their groups and substitu- ents (ester groups, alkyl chains, aromatic rings. . .) are gathered and examined in order to be able to predict their plasticizing efficiency and design new molecular and macromolecular plas- ticizers from natural resources.