Expanding the potential for waste polyvinyl-alcohol

Abstract

Expanded polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) was successfully prepared using a similar process to that of starch expansion. The addition of an iodine solution was necessary to facilitate expansion and led to surface areas of up to 143.1 m2 g−1. The use of recycled material from LCD screens required no additional iodine and produced an expanded material with high surface areas (95.0 m2 g−1) and total pore volumes (0.56 cm3 g−1). The PVA–iodine complexes were found to better mimic the interactions between amylose and amylopectin in starch expansion.