Renewable aromatics from the degradation of polystyrene under mild conditions

oleh: Nouf M. Aljabri, Zhiping Lai, Nikolaos Hadjichristidis, Kuo-Wei Huang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2017-12-01

Deskripsi

A bimetallic FeCu/alumina catalyst was prepared and characterized. It showed excellent catalytic activity to quantitatively convert polystyrene (PS) into aromatics at low temperatures. A clear goldish yellow liquid was produced at 250 °C in a batch reactor without distillation. A liquid yield of 66% in an inert environment was achieved without the formation of coke and gas by-products. An exposure time of 90 min. and a catalyst loading of 200 mg were considered as an optimum conditions to minimize the styrene re-polymerization. The gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis confirms that the primary products are styrene, ethylbenzene, cumene, toluene and α-methylstyrene. Keywords: Polystyrene, Bimetallic, Low-temperature, Catalytic degradation