Crosslinking of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) and Effect of Crosslinker Shape (Aliphatic and Aromatic) Thereof

In the presented work, the effect of crosslinker geometry on the properties of PVA is reported. The aliphatic (suberic) and aromatic (terephthalic) dicarboxylic acids are used as crosslinker molecules. On the basis of tensile test and thermal properties, it is observed that crosslinking of PVA by suberic acid is more effective than terephthalic acid. The maximum strength measured in crosslinked samples is 32.5 MPa for suberic acid crosslinked PVA which is higher than that of neat PVA (22.6 MPa). Swelling study shows that 8 h crosslinked terephthalic acid (35% w/w) samples have a minimum of 5.4% of water uptake compared to neat PVA, which dissolves readily in water. DTGA shows that the decomposition temperature of crosslinked PVA is 345 °C while neat PVA has a decomposition temperature of 315 °C. FTIR spectroscopy confirms the formation of crosslink ester bond in crosslinked PVA. The crosslinked samples kept for bio-degradation show maximum degradation in terephthalic acid (15% w/w) crosslinked PVA.