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Green Chem., 2009, 11, 1332 - 1336, DOI: 10.1039/b906607a

Expanding the potential for waste polyvinyl-alcohol

Andrew J. Hunt, Vitaly L. Budarin, Simon W. Breeden, Avtar S. Matharu and James H. Clark

Expanded polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) was successfully prepared using a similar process to that of starch expansion. The addition of an iodine solution was necessary to facilitate expansion and led to surface areas of up to 143.1 m2 g-1. The use of recycled material from LCD screens required no additional iodine and produced an expanded material with high surface areas (95.0 m2 g-1) and total pore volumes (0.56 cm3 g-1). The PVA–iodine complexes were found to better mimic the interactions between amylose and amylopectin in starch expansion.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b906607a)