In Indonesia, the composition of waste has gradually changed over time. To reduce expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam waste, we converted it into a heterogeneous acid catalyst, namely Polystyrene Sulfonic Acid (PSSA). The catalyst was then used in an esterification reaction to generate triacetin. In this research, the synthesis of PSSA was performed using a sulfonation reaction with silver sulfate (Ag2SO4) as the catalyst. Based on FTIR analysis, the sulfonation reaction was successful. The use of 0.5% and 1% catalysts led to a significant increase in the degree of sulfonation of PSSA, while there was a relatively constant increase when using 1.5–2.5% catalysts. The highest degree of sulfonation (78.63%) was achieved when the reaction was performed using 2% Ag2SO4 catalyst for 25 min. The PSSA with the highest degree of sulfonation was characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), SEM-EDX, and BET-BJH. This PSSA had a semi-crystalline structure with a crystallinity of 73.83%, a particle size of 1.75 nm, mesoporous pores with a radius of 16.984 Å, and a sulfur content of 15% (% mass).
This study aims to determine the influence of the amount of Ag2SO4 silver sulfate catalyst and amount of time on the degree of sulfonation in waste-based Styrofoam (polystyrene) into Poly-Styrene Sulfonic Acid (PSSA). The method used is sulfonation with sulfuric acid H2SO4 as a sulfonating agent. Based on the research, the sulfonation reaction was successfully carried out, which was shown by the functional group in the FTIR test and the highest degree of sulfonation achieved was 67.6%, which come from variation amount of 2% Ag2SO4 catalyst and 25 minutes of reaction time.
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