Catalytic dehydrochlorination of the solid poly(vinyl chloride) in the presence of aluminium chloride (friedel‐crafts) catalyst: Studies of the structure by spectroscopical methods

Catalytic dehydrochlorination (100%) of solid poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) in the presence of AlCl 3 at 200°C gives a product which has a similar structure to the product of catalytic dehydrochlorination of 1,2‐dichloroethane in the presence of AlCl 3 at 60°C. Both products have brown‐black color, are completely insoluble, thermally resistant up to more than 400°C, and exhibit conductivities in the range 10 −6 S cm −1 (after doping with FeCl 3 or I 2 conductivities: 10 −5 S cm −1 ). Different spectroscopical methods such as UV/VIS, IR, Raman, ESCA, and 13 C‐NMR were employed to the structure study of both products, which are crosslinked polyenes with a number of aromatic rings.