Thermal, dielectric and catalytic behavior of palladium doped PVC films

Abstract

The present paper discusses the aspects of synthesizing palladium (Pd) doped (Pd⁺² and Pd⁰) poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) using simple solution cast technique. The Pd loading to PVC was altered from 2.5% to 10.0% and the material properties were studied using UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). Thermal behavior of all the samples were studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Broido’s method was employed to analyse the kinetic parameters involved in different degradation steps. All the composite films were sandwitched between disk shape gold electrodes; electrical contacts were established to study the dielectric properties. The influence of Pd loading on the dielectric properties of PVC were examined. Finally, the catalytic properties of Pd⁰ composites were studied using standard model reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in the presence of aqueous sodium borohydride and reported.

Keywords:
dielectric; heterogeneous catalysis; palladium nanocomposites; poly(vinyl chloride); thermal analysis