Mechanism of PVC’s Solid-Phase Photocatalytic Degradation Enhanced by Plasma

The solid-phase photocatalytic degradation of poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) films was investigated in ambient air. The photodegradation of the PVC and PVC-TiO2 was compared with that of plasma-treated PVC and plasma-treated PVC-TiO2
performing a weight loss monitoring and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis. The SEM of the PVC-TiO2 film treated by plasma showed many cracks on the surface after photodegradation. Furthermore, the surface wettability and surface structure of PVC after nitrogen plasma treatment was characterized by contact angle, surface tension, and electron spin resonance (ESR). The experiment indicated that the surface free energy and wettability of PVC treated by plasma increased greatly. ESR revealed that the signal of radicals on the surface of the plasma-treated PVC film was enhanced after treatment. The free radicals on the surface of plasma-treated PVC possibly decreased the activating energy of photocatalytic reaction, which belongs to the free radicals reaction, because the chemical activity of the free radicals was high. According to these findings, a mechanism on the photodegradation of plasma-treated PVC-TiO2 is proposed.