Ultrasonic Degradation of Polystyrene for Tailoring Molecular Weight and Polydispersity of Polystyrene Fragments

Ultrasonic degradation of polymers attracts more and more attention in the field of chemical recycling of polymers due to the promising opportunity to tailor molecular weight and polydispersity of the gained polymer fragments. In this work, the influence of solvent, gas atmosphere, and ultrasound amplitude on the ultrasonic degradation process of polystyrene is investigated. Therefore, an experimental procedure to perform ultrasonic degradation of polystyrene under homogeneous temperature conditions in the solvents cyclohexane and toluene under the gas atmospheres CO$_{2}$ and N$_{2}$ for different ultrasonic amplitudes was designed. It could be shown that a significant effect on the molecular weight and polydispersity of the polymer could only be revealed for N$_{2}$ and not for CO$_{2}$ atmosphere.