Chemical Degradation of Waste PET and Its Application in Wood Reinforcement and Modification

Tianle Xu; Zhibin Li; Xinran Ju; Hui Tang; Wenli Xiang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c03805

Chemical Degradation of Waste PET and Its Application in Wood Reinforcement and Modification

ACS Omega. 2023 Aug 8;8(33):30550-30562. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c03805. eCollection 2023 Aug 22.

Authors

Tianle Xu¹, Zhibin Li¹, Xinran Ju², Hui Tang¹, Wenli Xiang¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650032, China.
² Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Camperdown 2050, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

In recent years, with the increasing scarcity of fossil resources and the worsening environmental pollution, the effective utilization of wood and plastic waste has become a critical issue. In this paper, propylene glycol (PG) was used as an alcoholysis agent to degrade waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and unsaturated polyester (UPR) was synthesized by the polycondensation reaction. The Chinese fir was modified by chemical impregnation to obtain a new type of waste PET-based wood-plastic composites. It exhibits a compressive strength of about 107 MPa and a water absorption of less than 20%. These results highlight the outstanding modification effect on fir, demonstrating excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. This study presents a green and efficient method for the preparation of wood-plastic composites and the recycling of waste PET, providing promising solutions for sustainable resource utilization and environmental protection.