Revisiting the polyvinylidene fluoride heterogeneous alkaline reaction mechanism in propan-2-ol: An additional hydrogenation step

The reaction between polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers and sodium hydroxide in the presence of propan-2-ol (IPA) as phase transfer catalyst (PTC) was studied. In this work, we propose a new reaction mechanism for the formation of the conjugate structure. FTIR and Raman spectra were analyzed with a focus on symmetry basics, which subsequently lead to a clear structure determination and imply that there is in fact an additional hydrogenation step to the dehydrofluorination mechanism previously reported. Sodium isopropylalcoholate catalyzes the Csp2-F bond cleavage in a transfer hydrogenation step and results in the formation of Csp2-H bond, a mechanism supported by the presence of acetone. These findings are of particular importance to PVDF alkaline reaction, it indicates that the use of IPA as PTC alter the reaction mechanism.