Dechlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) without anomalous units under high pressure and at high temperature in water

Abstract

Dechlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) prepared by polymerization of vinyl chloride (VC) with two kinds of butyllithium (BuLi), t-BuLi and n-BuLi, was investigated under conditions of high pressure and high temperature water. Dechlorination was induced completely and polyene polymer was formed from PVC under high pressure and high temperature. The polymers obtained from polymerization of VC with the t-BuLi and n-BuLi revealed different decomposition behavior from that obtained with a radical initiator such as lauryl peroxide. This was attributed to the different chemical structure of the PVC sample. Namely, the PVC obtained with BuLi has no anomalous structures, but PVC obtained with radical initiator has different types of anomalous units. Complete dechlorination of PVC could be achieved in hot water at 19.3 MPa and 300°C.