Abstract
The thermal cracking of HDPE in presence of different amounts of decalin was studied and compared with the reaction carried out in the absence of solvent. The decalin favours the mass and heat transfer during the reaction. In addition, it modifies the thermal degradation mechanism, which facilitates the formation of specific products. The use of decalin substantially increases the C5–C32 yield in comparison with the solventless reaction. In all cases, linear hydrocarbons such as n-paraffins, α-olefins and α,ω-dienes were detected. Increasing the decalin/plastic ratio led to enhanced α-olefin and n-paraffins yields, but the increase was more significant in the case of α-olefins, which are valuable compounds useful as raw chemicals. A reaction mechanism was proposed to explain the results obtained in presence of decalin. In these reactions, intramolecular radical transfer, secondary radical β-scission and hydrogen transfer from both decalin to intermediate radicals and from the polymer chain to regenerate the decalin play a significant role in determining the plastic conversion and the relative amounts of each product.
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Acknowledgments
This work has been funded by the “Comisión Inteministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología” from Spain (Project CICYT REN2002-03530).
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Aguado, J., Serrano, D.P., Vicente, G. et al. Effect of Decalin Solvent on the Thermal Degradation of HDPE. J Polym Environ 14, 375–384 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-006-0034-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-006-0034-3