Photo-fenton degradation of poly(Ethyleneglycol)

Polyethyleneglycol (PEG) was photooxidized in a photo-Fenton system and results compared with the dark reaction. The products were analysed using GPC and HPLC. In the absence of light, PEG samples needed 490 min to reduce their w by 50%, whereas under UV irradiation, only 10 min were necessary. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the Brazilian Chemical Society Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 540 - 545
Main Authors Santos, Laís C, Schmitt, Carla C, Poli, Alessandra L, Neumann, Miguel G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Portuguese
Published Sociedade Brasileira de Química 01.03.2011
Subjects
CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Fenton
polyethyleneglycol
photo-Fenton
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Summary:Polyethyleneglycol (PEG) was photooxidized in a photo-Fenton system and results compared with the dark reaction. The products were analysed using GPC and HPLC. In the absence of light, PEG samples needed 490 min to reduce their w by 50%, whereas under UV irradiation, only 10 min were necessary. The exponential decay of w with a concomitant increase in polydispersity and number of average chain scission, characterized a random chain scission mechanism. The degradation products of PEG in both systems showed the presence of lower molecular weight products, including smaller ethyleneglycols and formic acid. The mechanism involves consecutive processes, were the larger ethyleneglycols give rise, successively, to smaller ones. This suggests that the mechanism involves successive scissions of the polymer chain. Irradiated samples decomposed faster than those kept in the dark This study proves that the foto-Fenton method associated with UV-light is a good reactant for PEG photodegradation.
ISSN:0103-5053
1678-4790
DOI:10.1590/S0103-50532011000300018