Abstract

Novel Synthesis of Chloromethyl-Functionalized Waste Polystyrene/Amorphous Carbon Thin Film Composite Resin

Author(s): Mahmoud Fathy, Mahmoud Ahmed Mousa, Th. Abdel Moghny, Abdel-Hameed A-A. El-Bellihi and Ahmed E. Awadallah

This paper aim to synthesise waste polystyrene/amorphous carbon thin film composite resin (WPS/ACTF) beads by grinding and mixing the unused waste polystyrene bottles or others with carbon nanostructure. Such beads were converted into their corresponding Chloromethylated polymer by introducing chloromethyl group. The properties of (WPS/ACTF) composite resin beads and their corresponding chloromethylated polymers were investigated by FTIR and XRD. The surface morphology of ACTF was examined by the high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). It was found from FTIR, the presence of C=C, and C-Cl stretching vibration band of vinyl benzyl chloride monomer. XRD shows a sharp peak at 280 corresponding to (002) plane of graphite and indicated the high crystallinity of ACTF. The HR-TEM of ACTF exhibits amorphous sheets having 2 nm widths and show the vicinity of individual sheets eclipsed over each other to form amorphous carbon thin film. By this technique, we succeed to develop a novel, low-price, but relatively high-performance chlorinated composite resin through the combination of novel amorphous carbon thin film with waste polystyrene using solvent evaporation process.