Decabromodiphenylether (DBDE) is a brominated flame retardant which belongs to the group of polybromodiphenylethers (PBDEs) often used as a fire resistant additive in various well known polymeric systems like polystyrene, poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS), polypropylene, etc. This compound can be considered as a persistent organic pollutant and presents certain risks for the environment owing to the fact that it is bioaccumulable and not biodegradable. A detailed investigation, described here, was carried out on the effect of ultraviolet/visible radiation on DBDE in ABS with the aim to study the photolytic reactions of this molecule in the solid state, in order to improve the economic and ecological treatment of brominated plastic waste from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). This study presents new aspects of the photochemical degradation of DBDE/ABS systems in the solid state. The photodegradation of DBDE in ABS was followed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as well as by thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA). Good agreement was obtained for the results of both analytical methods in terms of the overall photolysis of DBDE.

Recycling of plastic waste from electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), containing brominated flame retardants (BFR) remains difficult due to the increasingly stringent regulations on their handling and recovery. This report deals with photodegradation in a low-pressure reactor applying UV-visible light on Decabromodiphenyl ether (DBDE or BDE-209) randomly dispersed in commercially available Poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS) and Poly(carbonate) (PC). The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of decomposing a BFR in plastic waste from EEE while maintaining the specifications of the polymeric materials in order to allow for their recycling. The photodegradation of the extracted BFR was monitored using infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy. DBDE underwent rapid photodegradation during the first minutes of exposure to UV-visible light and reached degradation yields superior to 90% after 15 min of irradiation. The evaluation of polymer properties (ABS and PC) after irradiation revealed superficial crosslinking effects, which were slightly accelerated in the presence of DBDE. However, the use of a low-pressure reactor avoids large photooxidation and allowed to maintain the thermal and structural properties of the virgin polymers.

In recent years, ionic liquids (ILs) have received considerable attention for their use in chemical industry and are considered to be an alternative to conventional entrainers in extractive distillation, because of their ability to selectively separate azeotropic/close boiling mixtures [1,2].In this work, an extractive distillation process was investigated, comparing the imidazoliumbased ionic liquids (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate), [EMIM][OAc] and (1ethyl-3methylimidazolium dicyanamide), [EMIM][DCA] with ethylene glycol (EG) organic solvent for ethanol dehydration. These ionic liquids were proposed with the aim of obtaining a higher selectivity than EG traditional solvent.The thermodynamic behavior of the ethanol/water mixture in the presence of the solvent was studied using Simulis Thermodynamics software; ionic liquids were created as new components, with the required thermodynamic and physical property parameters. The experimental data for ethanol/water/ethylene glycol mixture were fitted with the nonrandomtwo-liquid (NRTL) activity coefficient model to determine the binary interaction parameters, while, binary interaction parameters for ionic liquids were obtained from the literature.The vapor liquid equilibrium (VLE) behavior of ethanol-water in the presence of [EMIM][DCA] showed that this ionic liquid enhances the relative volatility of ethanol and allows to eliminate the ethanol-water azeotrope. The main operating conditions of anhydrous ethanol production have been determined to achieve a high distillate purity of 99.9 mol% in ethanol. It has been found that the [EMIM] [DCA] ionic liquid is very effective for the separation of ethanol-water azeotropic system even at low concentrations and less energy consuming compared to the conventional benchmark solvent EG.