SEM analysis of the tunable honeycomb structure of irradiated poly(vinyl chloride) films doped with polyphosphate

Mohammad Hayal Alotaibi; Gamal A El-Hiti; Hassan Hashim; Ayad S Hameed; Dina S Ahmed; Emad Yousif

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e01013

SEM analysis of the tunable honeycomb structure of irradiated poly(vinyl chloride) films doped with polyphosphate

Heliyon. 2018 Dec 8;4(12):e01013. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e01013. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Authors

Mohammad Hayal Alotaibi¹, Gamal A El-Hiti², Hassan Hashim³, Ayad S Hameed⁴, Dina S Ahmed⁴, Emad Yousif⁵

Affiliations

¹ National Center for Petrochemicals Technology, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh, 11442, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Optometry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 10219, Riyadh, 11433, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Physics, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Tikrit University, Tikrit, 34001, Iraq.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, 64021, Iraq.

Abstract

The fabrication of tunable poly(vinyl chloride) porous films containing polyphosphate as an additive was successful. Irradiation of poly(vinyl chloride) films containing polyphosphate at a low concentration (0.5% by weight) with an ultraviolet light (λ_max = 313 nm) for 300 h leads to the formation of a honeycomb like structure. The scanning electron microscopy images, at different magnification power, confirmed the production of the PVC honeycomb-like structure. The morphological images of the polymeric film showed a rough surface and a large number of regularly distributed hexagonal pores. The number of pores increased upon irradiation time and it was maximum after 300 h. The honeycomb structure formation could be due to the regular aggregation of polyphosphate among the polymeric chains, the increase in solution intrinsic viscosity and evaluation of hydrogen chloride gas through dehydrochlorination process.

Keywords: Materials chemistry; Materials science; Physical chemistry.