Polystyrene photodegradation with a styrene block copolymer containing TiO2 nanoparticle

Polystyrene (PS) photodegradation with a novel poly(styrene-block-acrylic acid) (PS-b-PAA) containing TiO2 nanoparticle photocatalyst was studied. The TiO2 nanoparticle contained anatase phase and showed methylene blue photodecomposition activity. In particular, the higher molecular weight PS736-b-PAA129 photocatalyst had a high ability in the photodegradation and showed good dispersity in PS matrix. The PS composite film transparency was nearly equal to that of PS. The composite showed good PS photodegradation behavior under the UV irradiation. The chain scission preferentially occurred, leading to the decrease of PS molecular weight. In addition, an additional methyl linoleate (ML) component caused an improvement of the chain scission activity to the composite.