Solid-Phase Photocatalytic Degradation of Polyvinyl Borate

Hafize Koysuren

doi:10.3390/catal8110499

Abstract

In this study, polymer composites based on polyvinyl borate (PVB) with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were prepared through the condensation reaction of polyvinyl alcohol and boric acid in the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles. The solid-phase photocatalytic degradation of the polymer composites under UV light irradiation was investigated and compared with that of the pure PVB with the aid of weight loss measurements. The introduction of the photocatalyst nanoparticles in PVB enhanced the solid-phase photocatalytic degradation of the polymer matrix under UV light irradiation. The structural and morphological properties of PVB/TiO2 composites were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and UV-Vis spectroscopy, respectively. FTIR analysis revealed that PVB synthesis was successfully carried out in the presence of the photocatalyst nanoparticles. According to the morphological analyses, TiO2 nanoparticles were well dispersed in the PVB matrix.

Highlights

With the speeding up of the industrial process based on the plastic technology, a large amount of plastic waste is directly discharged into the nature, inducing the accumulation of large amounts of toxic organic compounds in our daily lives and bringing with it an enormous threat to human health [1]
The peak at 1430 cm−1 was attributed to the stretching vibration of the B–O bond, which might be due to the unreacted boric acid (Figure 1a)
Boric acid according to the procedure given inwas the literature through the condensation reaction of and boric acid according to the procedure given

Summary

Introduction

With the speeding up of the industrial process based on the plastic technology, a large amount of plastic waste is directly discharged into the nature, inducing the accumulation of large amounts of toxic organic compounds in our daily lives and bringing with it an enormous threat to human health [1].Most of the plastic based organic pollutants are burned for disposal, producing toxic gases. With the speeding up of the industrial process based on the plastic technology, a large amount of plastic waste is directly discharged into the nature, inducing the accumulation of large amounts of toxic organic compounds in our daily lives and bringing with it an enormous threat to human health [1]. Certain types of plastic materials are biodegradable under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and the degradation rate of the most used plastics under natural environmental conditions is too low to apply in practice [3]. Most of the plastics are very difficult to degrade by the ordinary processing methods [1]. The solid-phase photocatalytic process is an ideal method to degrade plastic waste by using the inexhaustible solar light energy [1]

Methods

Results

Conclusion