Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is an indispensable compound that accounts for 66% of the water distribution infrastructure and 75% of sanitary sewer pipe applications in the U.S.A. In this study PVC resin was recovered by solvent extraction from a postconsumer PVC pipe. The recovered PVC (PVC-R) was characterized by a multi-detector size exclusion chromatography system eluted with tetrahydrofuran (THF) at 30 degrees C. The values of the Mark-Houwink-Kuhn-Sakurada (MH) parameters of the PVC-R were obtained by averaging three replicable experiments and the results were comparable with the reported values of pure PVC. The Stockmayer-Fixman plot of the PVC-R in THF had a curved shape which is due to the notorious tendency of the PVC molecules to remain partly associated in supermolecular aggregates even if the PVC is dissolved in a good solvent. As a results, the unperturbed molecular dimension, of the PVC-R was dependent on a function of the excluded volume, z, where the z(2) coefficient was not zero. The obtained value of the of PVC-R, having a = 87 kDa and = 1.41, was 8.19 x 10(-9) (cgs), comparable with the reported value for pure industrial PVCs in THF, 6.4 kDa < < 650 kDa at 25 degrees C, 8.17 x 10(-9) (cgs) and in benzyl alcohol, an ideal solvent, at 155.4 degrees C, 40 kDa < < 350 kDa, 8.20 x 10(-9) (cgs). The comparison of the results showed that the PVC-R had similar characteristics to the industrial PVC reported in the published literature, and hence can be reused as a resin for the manufacturing of PVC commodities.
