Epoxide containing spherical beads from PVC

Dehydrochlorination of poly (vinylchloride) (PVC) bead particles (410-840 μm) has been performed by heating in liquid paraffin or pre-treatment with KOH-isopropanol and subsequent heating at 200 °C. These procedures give crosslinked dark-colored products with retention of the bead shapes. Catalytic epoxidation of the dehydrochlorinated products with t-butyl hydroperoxide yields gray-white to dark products with reasonable epoxide contents (1.7-4.7 mmol per gram). The method presented offers a simple pathway to prepare epoxidized spherical beads, starting from PVC. The resulting products are very useful as functional group carriers, due to high reactivity of the epoxy groups.