Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols 522-524 (2014) pp 346-348 Online: 2014-02-06

© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.522-524.346

Effects of pH and temperature on the degradation of polycarbonate in

water

Si Hongyan, Xiang Tiancheng* and Wang Ruiting

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xuchang University, Xuchang, China
[email protected]

Keywords: polycarbonate, degradation, pH

Abstract. The degradation of polycarbonate was studied by measuring the absorbance of bisphenol A,
which is the main degradation products of polycarbonate. The important factors have been researched,
such as temperature, the pH and reaction time. The result shows that the pH and temperature have an
effect on the degradation of polycarbonate.

Introduction
As one of the most important engineering plastics, polycarbonates are used in a wide variety of
applications, such as digital media (e.g. CDs, DVDs), electronic equipment, automobiles,
construction glazing, reusable bottles and food storage containers. Under outdoor environment,
polycarbonates can degrade to yield the bisphenol A (BPA) on the influence of UV-light, humidity
and oxygen. The monomer BPA can migrate from the plastic products into water and foods, and then
causing a health concern. The degradation of polycarbonates has been attracting long-time attention
constantly over the past few decades [1-16]. In summery, the photodegradation of polycarbonates can
be ascribed to two different mechanisms: photo-Fries rearrangement and photo-oxidation. The
photo-oxidation reaction is dominant in outdoor conditions. Using the intrinsic viscosity, mass
spectrometry, and gas chromatography, Davis and Golden [1-3] have analyzed the chemical
mechanism of polycarbonate degradation. Their results show that the main products of polycarbonate
degradation were found to be carbon dioxide, bisphenol-A and other lesser amounts of products.
Recent researches in the degradation reactions of polycarbonates have benefited from more
sophisticated analytical techniques, such as thermal volatilization analysis (TVA), subambient TVA
(SATVA), infrared spectroscopy, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). McNeill
and Rincon[4, 5] have utilized a battery of techniques to elucidate the mechanism of polycarbonate
degradation. They found that the phenol is an early degradation product. However, it has been lack of
a more detailed knowledge about the degradation mechanism of polycarbonate in water under
acidulous and alkaline conditions. In this paper, the hydrolysis of polycarbonate in water have been
studied by Infrared spectra and UV-Vis spectra. Some important influential factors, such as
temperature, the pH and reaction time, have been observed. The aim of this paper is to research the
regularity of polycarbonate degradation in water.

Experimental
Waste CD is used as the raw material of polycarbonate. UV-Vis spectra were recorded on a
Shimadzu UV-3102PC scanning spectrophotometer. Infrared spectra were recorded using a BioRad
FTS 6000 spectrometer in the attenuated total reflection (ATR) mode for 200 scans at a resolution of
4 cm-1.

Results and discussion

Infrared spectra of the polycarbonate hydrolysis products and the standard FTIR spectra of
bisphenol A are shown in Figure 1. Comparing the location of absorption peaks, it can be seen that the
bisphenol A is the main hydrolysis products of polycarbonate. So the UV absorbances of bisphenol A

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 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 522-524 347

have been measured to reflect the hydrolysis of polycarbonate in the experiment. All the UV
absorbances data of bisphenol A have been measured at 240nm, which is the maximum absorption of
the bisphenol A solution.

Figure 1. Infrared spectra of the polycarbonate hydrolysis products and bisphenol A.

2.5
Abs

2.0

1.5
Abs

1.0

0.5

0.0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
pH

Figure 2. The influence of pH on the hydrolysis of polycarbonate.

The UV absorbance of the hydrolysis products of polycarbonate at different pH are shown in
Figure 2. All the UV absorbance have been measured at the same reaction time. The results show that
the polycarbonate remains stable under acidulous and neutral conditions, only little bisphenol A has
been obtained from the polycarbonate hydrolysis. But under alkaline conditions, the polycarbonate
hydrolyzes quickly in the water to produce bisphenol A. The more alkaline of the water is, the faster
hydrolysis of polycarbonate becomes.

1
Abs

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Time/h
Figure 3. The influence of temperature on the hydrolysis of polycarbonate.
348 Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development

As shown in Figure 3, the effect of temperature is a key factor of the polycarbonate hydrolysis.
At 40℃, the polycarbonate is no obvious decomposition within eight hours under alkaline conditions.
But as the temperature rose, the hydrolysis of polycarbonate increased greatly.

Conclusions
The bisphenol A is the main degradation products of polycarbonate in the water. The
polycarbonate remains stable under acidulous and neutral conditions. But under alkaline conditions,
the polycarbonate hydrolyzes quickly in the water to produce bisphenol A. And the effect of
temperature is a key factor of the polycarbonate hydrolysis. As the temperature rose, the hydrolysis of
polycarbonate increased greatly.

Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Education
Department of Henan Province (No. 14A150041)

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Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.522-524

Effects of pH and Temperature on the Degradation of Polycarbonate in Water

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.522-524.346