Degradation of Polyvinylpyrrolidone by Solution Plasma Process

The solution plasma technique, which has been recently invented by Takai and Saito, produces radicals, ions, UV photons, shock waves and metastable excited atoms. These generated active species are used as the source of some chemical reactions. The exact structure of the solution plasma is not well known at present, however it has been shown to be a versatile phenomenon for production of nanomaterials, sterilization and organic compound decomposition. Solution plasma technique has emerged as a great prospect for the chain scission (degradation) of polymers, to improve their solubility and physicochemical characteristics due to such advantages as absence of toxic materials, low temperature and usage of economical, simple equipment. In this study, polyvinylpyrrolidone, uncharged water soluble polymer of a known initial molecular weight, was continuously monitored using the continuous viscometry method, which gives the viscosity at any moment of the reaction, during the interaction of polyvinylpyrrolidone with plasma, for the first time in the literature.