In Korea, 200,000 tons of PVC are consumed per year (1982). For the utilization of PVC waste, some research has been carried out to prepare activated carbon from PVC.
In this study, activated carbon was obtained by dehydrochlorination and $HNO_3$ treatment. Dehydrochlorination was performed by thermal decomposition or NaOH treatment. In the case of thermal decomposition, PVC structure was transformed to a chemical structure which was mainly composed of conjugated polyene including a bit of aromatics, and aromatics increased with rising temperature.
Dehydrochlorination accelerated in the present of NaOH, and PVC was transformed to oxigen crosslinked polyene. Dehydrochlorinated PVC(Char) was oxidated with $HNO_3$. The resulting char was found to have carbonyl and nitro groups. The amount of acidic groups was obtained in the range of 3-4 meqv/g char. Lactone and phenol groups were formed in the activated carbon.
Surface area measured form $N_2$(77˚K) isotherm, $HNO_3$ treatment had little effect on surface area. Maximum surface area of PVC char was not over 8 ㎡/g, but it was shown good adsorption for lead ion.
