| Abstract: | Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and some other chlorine-containing polymers belong to one of the most widely applied groups of thermoplastics. Their main disadvantage is the rather limited thermal stability, which requires the addition of heat stabilizers to prevent dehydrochlorination and discolouration. Hydrogen chloride is also the main volatile decomposition product during combustion of PVC; therefore, PVC-waste is less suited for the so-called thermal recycling. For the re-use of PVC and similar polymers it is necessary to characterize these products by molecular weight (or at least viscometry), internal double bonds and other defect structures, stability against the influence of heat (and in some cases of light) and a few other properties. The application of these methods for deciding about the re-usability of PVC roofing sheets and for the injection moulding of PVC scrap is demonstrated. |
