Plasma-Assisted Synthesis of Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride (CPVC) Using a Gas-Solid Contacting Process

Plasma-assisted synthesis of CPVC, using a gas-solid contactor, is presented as a novel process of PVC chlorination. The basic principle is to use cold plasma to generate free radical chlorine same time. Accordingly, the chlorination and activate the surfaces of PVC particles at the process can be decoupled into two steps: plasma-enhanced chlorination on the particle surface and chlorine transfer from the surface to the core of the particle. Experiments were carried out in a DBD plasma fixed-bed reactor. The results demonstrated the high efficiency of this process, i.e., a total of 3 h operation with plasma can achieve up to 67% of the chlorine content in PVC particles. The characterization results by SEM/EDS, TGA, and Raman spectra showed that CPVC made by this process had the desired microstructure and the thermal stability similar to that of the commercial CPVC products.