Incorporation of Nanohybrid Films of Silica into Recycled Polystyrene Matrix

Genoveva Hernández-Padrón,Alejandra Blanco-Hernández,Gerardo Cedillo,Domingo Rangel-Miranda

doi:10.1155/2015/173949

Genoveva Hernández-Padrón, Alejandra Blanco-Hernández + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/173949

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Abstract

An alternative for the reutilization of polystyrene waste containers consisting in creating a hybrid material made of SiO2nanoparticles embedded in a matrix of recycled polystyrene (PSR) has been developed. Recycled polystyrene functionalized (PSRF) was used to influence the morphological and antifog properties by the sol-gel synthesis of nanohybrid silica. To this end, silica nanoparticles were produced from alkoxide precursors in the presence of recycled polystyrene. The functionalization of this polymeric matrix was with the purpose of uniting in situ carboxyl and silanol groups during the sol-gel process. In this way, opaque or transparent solid substrates can be obtained, with each of these endowed with optical conditions that depend on the amount of reactants employed to prepare each nanohybrid specimen. The nanohybrids were labelled as SiO2/PSR (HPSR) and SiO2/PSRF (HPSRF) and their properties were then compared to those of commercial polystyrene (PS). All the prepared samples were used for coating glass substrates. The hydrophobicity of the resultant coatings was determined through contact angle measurement. The nanohybrid materials were characterized by FT-IR and1H-NMR techniques. Additionally, TGA and SEM were employed to determine their thermal and textural properties.

Highlights

In the recent decades, the development of new plastics has been a great challenge for the scientific and technological community, because of the harmful influence of plastics on the environment and the accumulation of polymeric materials
The signals appearing at 2.4 ppm in Figures 5(a) and 6(a) correspond to aliphatic hydrogen while that of the region between 1 and 2.3 ppm corresponds to methine (CH) and methylene groups (CH2) [20]
Hybrid materials were successfully prepared from recycled polystyrene matrices by introducing silica particles to the polymer matrix by the sol-gel method

Summary

Introduction

The development of new plastics has been a great challenge for the scientific and technological community, because of the harmful influence of plastics on the environment and the accumulation of polymeric materials. The degradation time of these materials is very long and nonrenewable resources have been declining in tandem with the growth of plastics engineering [1]. Inorganic-organic hybrids [3, 4] are rapidly emerging as alternatives to traditional antifog, self-cleaning, and UV protected materials, since they combine the chemical and mechanical properties of both inorganic and organic components [5,6,7]. In another sense, human health protection and environmental remediation have been constantly deteriorated. In the following work we propose an application for reusing polystyrene, which is commonly used for transporting fast food disposables, food trays, and beverage containers and as a general packaging product

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