Polyvinyl chloride

**Polyvinyl chloride**
Elongation at break	20–40%
Notch test	2–5 kJ/m2
Glass temperature	82 °C
Melting point	100–260 °C
Effective heat of combustion	17.95 MJ/kg
Specific heat (c)	0.9 kJ/(kg·K)
Water absorption (ASTM)	0.04–0.4

Space-filling model of a part of a PVC chain

PVC SPI code, for recycling (Society of the Plastics Industry). The Unicode character for this symbol is U+2675

Polyvinyl chloride, also called Polychloroethene or PVC, is a thermoplastic. It turns soft when heated and hard when cooled. Polyvinyl chloride is made by polymerization of the monomer vinyl chloride (chloroethene) CH₂=CHCl. PVC can be made softer and more flexible by adding plasticizers. Phthalates are often used to soften PVC in this way.

Vinyl polymers are the most common type of plastic. "Vinyl" is actually Ethylene, a gas that is used to make those plastics including PVC. In popular usage, "vinyl" is often short for PVC, but there are two other vinyl polymers which are more common. The most common is polyethylene, the second-most common is polypropylene. Another, less used, is polystyrene.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Wilkes, Charles E.; et al. (2005). PVC Handbook. Hanser Verlag. p. 414. ISBN 9781569903797.

[pvc_handbook-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Wilkes, Charles E.; et al. (2005). PVC Handbook. Hanser Verlag. p. 414. ISBN 9781569903797.

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