Sodium hydroxide-assisted dechlorination of a poly(vinylidene chloride)-containing wrapping film in ethylene glycol solution

Abstract

Poly(vinylidene chloride) (PVDC) wrapping film was dechlorinated using solutions of NaOH in ethylene glycol (EG) at temperatures between 150 and 190 °C. The reaction was comparable to that for PVDC powder; however, it occurred at a lower NaOH concentration, which can be explained by the dissolution of additives present in the wrapping film. Therefore, the best results for the dechlorination of the wrapping film were obtained at a temperature of 190 °C and NaOH concentrations of 0.1 M and 0.5 M, resulting in dechlorination yields of almost 90% after 135 min. For the dechlorination reaction, the activation energy of the PVDC wrapping film (185 kJ mol −1) was determined to be higher than that of PVDC powder; this finding could be attributed to the presence of a stabilizer and the smaller surface area of the PVDC wrapping film.