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Fast photocatalytic polypropylene degradation by nanostructured bismuth catalysts

Abstract:

Every year millions of tons of polymeric waste are discarded by human activities due to its low production cost; the landfills are littered with plastic waste without any recycling value. This class of garbage exhibits a very low degradation rate under environmental conditions, occupying a lot of space in landfills for a long time, which is costly for society and harmful to environment. Photocatalysis has become a quite interesting tool to oxidize organic pollutants as dyes, drugs, and some polymers, representing a potential alternative for reducing the environmental pollution. In this work, we report an ecofriendly method for polypropylene (PP) degradation by catalytic bismuth nanoparticles (Bi2O3 or BiFeO3) assisted by ionizing radiation. The effect of catalyst load and applied radiation dose on photo-degradation rate were studied. High oxidation efficiencies were detected even at both low catalyst load nd irradiation dose. Oxidized propylene was detected by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). All those instrumental techniques confirmed the successful oxidation of PP in few hours of reaction and 1% weight of the catalyst. 2,3 butane-dione, 4-hydroxy-4-methyl pentane-2-one, and ethyl-9-acetoxynonanoate were the main degradation products identified mainly by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR 1H, 13C).