Polystyrene sulfone chemical modification

The first section, Chemical Reactions on Polymers, deals with aspects of chemical reactions occurring on polymers—aspects relating to polymer size, shape, and composition are described in detail. One of the timely fields of applications comprises the use of modified polymers as catalysts (such as the immobilization of centers for homogeneous catalysis). This topic is considered in detail in Chapters 2, 3, 8, 9, and 11 and dealt with to a lesser extent in other chapters. The use of models and neighboring group effect(s) is described in detail. The modification of polymers for chemical and physical change is also described in detail in Chapters 2 (polystyrene) 4 (polyvinyl chloride) 5 (polyacrylic acid, polyvinyl alcohol, polyethyleneimine, and polyacrylamide) 6 (polyimides) 7 (polyvinyl alcohol) 8 (polystyrene sulfonate and polyvinylphosphonate) 10 (polyacrylamide) and 12 (organotin carboxylates). 

The chemical modification of homopolymers such as polyvinylchloride, polyethylene, poly(chloroalkylene sulfides), polysulfones,poly-chloromethylstyrene, polyisobutylene, polysodium acrylate, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl chloroformate, sulfonated polystyrene block and graft copolymers such as poly(styrene-block-ethylene-co-butylene-block-styrene), poly(1,4-polybutadiene-block ethylene oxide), star chlorine-telechelic polyisobutylene, poly(lsobutylene-co-2,3-dimethy1-1,3-butadiene), poly(styrene-co-N-butylmethacrylate) cellulose, dex-tran and inulin, is described. 

One possible way of polymer waste management is the chemical modification of polymeric materials. Sulkowski et al. (2013) used expanded polystyrene waste (EPS), as the reference material, which was converted into polymeric flocculants by the sulfonation reaction. Under conventional heating and microwave conditions, poly(styrenesulphonate) acids (EPSS) were obtained from EPS during the sulfonation process with sulfuric acid as the sulfonation agent and Ag SO as the catalyst. It was observed that the sulfonation process performed under microwave irradiation gave same amount of product as in case of conventional conditions but the reaction time was substantially reduced from 1-1.30 h to 15 min. 

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