Decomposition of poly(vinyl chloride) in inductively coupled radiofrequency thermal plasma

Abstract

Decomposition of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was studied in inductively coupled radiofrequency thermal plasma in neutral, oxidative and reductive conditions. The exhaust gases were analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and their main components were identified as CO, CO 2 , C 2 H 2 , H 2 O and HCl. The weaker bands in the infrared spectra were assigned by density function theory calculations and P-R separation method. The extent of PVC decomposition was calculated from the amount of solid soot, which was also studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for morphology and composition. Organic compounds adsorbed on the surface of the soot were extracted by toluene and analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The extracts *Marked-up Revised Manuscript Click here to view linked References

Thermal Plasma Decomposition of Tetrachloroethylene

“…atmosphere (Figure 7-b-c). These values are very similar to the size of carbon particles produced in our previous works [4,6].…”

“…We could observe both buckminsterfullerene (C 60 ) and C 70 molecules in the extracts prepared from the solid decomposition products in neutral (Runs 1-5), reductive (Runs [6][7][8][9][10][11] conditions, and in the presence of helium (Run-18), as well ( Figure 9). We also detected their oxidised derivatives, such as C 60 O and C 70 O.…”

“…Chlorine containing intermediaries, such as CCl 2 and C 2 Cl 2 are also present in the 1500-4000 K region, therefore their recombination into C 2 Cl 4 is a possibility due to reaction kinetical means. and PAH molecules [6]. The main chlorine molecule becomes HCl, even temperatures higher than 3000 K, which is favourable to chlorinated hydrocarbons.…”

“…Therefore, thermal plasma processing is usually applied in cases when incineration or high-temperature pyrolysis would yield stable, undesired by-products, like soot, dioxins or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Decomposition in thermal plasma has been tested on a large array of compounds, such as (1) small aromatic molecules, like benzene [2], toluene [3] and chlorobenzene [4], (2) linear polymers, like polyethylene [5] and poly(vinyl chloride) [6], (3) halogenated methane derivatives, like chloroform [7], carbon tetrachloride [8], carbon tetrafluoride [9] and Freon-11 [10] and (4) hydrogen containing C 2 molecules, like dichloroethylene [11]. To best of our knowledge, there have not been reports on the RF thermal plasma decomposition of any hydrogen-free C 2 compounds.…”

Continuous and catalyst free synthesis of graphene sheets in thermal plasma jet

“…The decomposition of aliphatic n-alcohols was carried out in an RF thermal plasma system, which consisted of an RF inductively coupled plasma torch (TEKNA PL- 35) connected to a high frequency (4-5 MHz) LEPEL generator, a reactor, a cyclone, a filter unit and a vacuum pump (see Supplementary Data, Figure S1 and papers [44][45]). The doublewall, water cooled cylindrical reactor was made of stainless steel with the inner diameter of 19.7 cm and length of 121.6 cm.…”