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The Self-Degradation Mechanism of Polyvinyl Chloride-Modified Slag/Fly Ash Binder for Geothermal Wells
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Researchers studied how polyvinyl chloride (PVC) degrades during thermal processes such as geothermal well construction, finding that the hydrochloric acid it releases reacts with alkaline binding agents — relevant to understanding how PVC waste behaves under heat and contributes to chemical contamination.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) releases hydrochloric acid (HCl) during its thermal degradation, and hydrochloric acid can react with hydration products of alkali-activated binders. According to this characteristic of PVC and the temperature change that occurs during the development of a geothermal well, the PVC was added into slag/fly ash binder to develop self-degradable materials. The thermal degradation properties of PVC, compressive strength, hydration products, and microstructure of binders at different stages were tested, in order to study the degradation mechanism of the material. It was found that 20% PVC reduced the compressive strength, decreasing the level of binder from 13.95% to 76.63%. The mechanism of PVC promoting the material degradation mainly includes the following: (1) the thermal degradation of PVC increases the number of multiple damage pores in the material, at a high temperature; (2) HCl generated by the PVC thermal degradation reacts with the binder gels, and breaks them into particles; and (3) HCl also reacts with other substances in the binder, including CaCO3 and NaOH in the pore solution.
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