Preparation and Properties of Polycarbonate/Polystyrene Bead Alloy via Solvent Evaporation Method

• Published in: ChemistrySelect (Weinheim) Vol. 4; no. 47; pp. 13755 - 13759
• Main Authors: Li, Shu, Su, Caiyun, Yang, Jiaqi, Wen, Fengyu, Wang, Zhenyang, Chen, Rui, He, Qingxia, Mu, Jianxin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 19.12.2019
• Subjects: Composite materials; Polymeric composites; Recycle; Waste-expanded polystyrene
• ISSN: 2365-6549; 2365-6549
• DOI: 10.1002/slct.201904020

In this study, a facile method to recycle wasted expandable polystyrene (PS) into polycarbonate (PC)/PS bead alloys is described in this paper, and compared with melt extrusion method. Results showed that the initial decomposition temperature of composite with 30 wt% PC increases by 25 °C and simultaneously enhances by 37.6% in tensile property compared to the neat PS via solvent evaporation method, however, a substantial drop in molecular weight with melt extrusion method. The solvent evaporation method provided several advantages, such as easy operation, low energy consumption, low contamination, high purity and high product yield. The expended solvent was recovered using an evaporation process that was put into practice along with the emulsification, making the process more productive and sustainable. A simple and efficient method is established to obtain the polycarbonate (PC)/PS bead alloys with dissolution of waste‐expanded polystyrene (PS) in dichloromethane, forming an O / W emulsion system, followed by evaporation and stirring. The thermal stability and mechanical properties of the PC/PS bead alloys are improved compared to the neat PS via solvent evaporation method, however, a severe drop in molecular weight with melt extrusion method.