Characterization of polymer synthesized from the nonequilibrium plasma conversion of CFC-12 and methane in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor

A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) nonequilibrium plasma reactor was employed to polymerize CFC-12 (CCl 2 F 2 , dichlorodifluoromethane) at atmospheric pressure. The plasma polymerization of this saturated halogenated hydrocarbon was conducted in the presence of methane as reactant, in an argon bath gas and where the reaction environment was free from oxygen and nitrogen. The reaction resulted in the formation of non-cross-linked polymer product and whereby the non-cross-linked nature of the polymer enabled its characterization by solution state 13 C and 19 F nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic analysis. The generated polymer was also analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, and the spectra thus obtained were consistent with the analysis by NMR. The analyses of NMR and FTIR spectroscopy reveal the formation of fluoropolymers from the conversion of CFC-12.