Ammonia modification for flotation separation of polycarbonate and polystyrene waste plastics.
Waste Manag
; 51: 13-18, 2016 May.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26965210
ABSTRACT
A promising method, ammonia modification, was developed for flotation separation of polycarbonate (PC) and polystyrene (PS) waste plastics. Ammonia modification has little effect on flotation behavior of PS, while it changes significantly that of PC. The PC recovery in the floated product drops from 100% to 3.17% when modification time is 13min and then rises to 100% after longer modification. The mechanism of ammonia modification was studied by contact angle, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. Contact angle of PC indicates the decline of PC recovery in the floated product is ascribed to an increase in surface wettability. FT-IR and XPS spectra suggest that ammonia modification causes chemical reactions occurred on PC surface. Flotation behavior of ammonia-modified PC and PS was investigated with respect to flotation time, frother concentration and particle sizes. Flotation separation of PC and PS waste plastics was conducted based on the flotation behavior of single plastic. PC and PS mixtures with different particle sizes are separated efficiently, implying that the technology possesses superior applicability to particle sizes of plastics. The purity of PS and PC is up to 99.53% and 98.21%, respectively, and the recovery of PS and PC is larger than 92.06%. A reliable, cheap and effective process is proposed for separation of PC and PS waste plastics.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Polycarboxylate Cement
/
Polystyrenes
/
Waste Management
/
Recycling
/
Ammonia
Language:
En
Journal:
Waste Manag
Journal subject:
SAUDE AMBIENTAL
/
TOXICOLOGIA
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Country of publication:
EEUU
/
ESTADOS UNIDOS
/
ESTADOS UNIDOS DA AMERICA
/
EUA
/
UNITED STATES
/
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
/
US
/
USA