Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), an environment-friendly reaction medium, has been adopted to accelerate the dehydrochlorination of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Experimental results demonstrated that at 210 degrees C for 1 h the dechlorination degree was as high as 74.2% for PVC/PEG, while for PVC only 50.0%. Moreover, from thermogravimetric analysis, it was found that for PVC/PEG the decomposition of PVC corresponding to the dehydrochlorination stage shifted to lower temperatures compared with that of pure PVC, suggesting some interactions exist between PEG and PVC that caused the faster dehydrochlorination rate. In addition, during this process, no waste byproducts such as KCl have been produced, and satisfactory recyclability of PEG (10 cycles) has been obtained. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved