Structure and thermal properties of various alcoholysis products from waste poly(ethylene terephthalate)

Xing Zhou; Chenxi Wang; Changqing Fang; Ruien Yu; Yaguang Li; Wanqing Lei

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2018.12.032

Structure and thermal properties of various alcoholysis products from waste poly(ethylene terephthalate)

Waste Manag. 2019 Feb 15:85:164-174. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2018.12.032. Epub 2018 Dec 31.

Authors

Xing Zhou¹, Chenxi Wang², Changqing Fang³, Ruien Yu⁴, Yaguang Li², Wanqing Lei¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China; School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China.
² Faculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China.
³ Faculty of Printing, Packaging Engineering and Digital Media Technology, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China; School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China. Electronic address: fcqxaut@163.com.
⁴ School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, PR China; School of Mechanical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, PR China.

PMID: 30803569
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2018.12.032

Abstract

Waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has been a core member in plastic polluters due to the great amount consumption in food packaging, soft-drink bottles, fibers and films. It is essential to recycle waste PET and alcoholysis is a significant way to accomplish chemical recycling. In this work, three kinds of dihydric alcohols, including neopentyl glycol (NPG), dipropylene glycol (DPG) and poly(propylene glycol) (PPG), were employed to decompose waste PET with different temperatures, catalysts, and PET. A series of alcoholysis products with different appearance were obtained. The bulk structure and thermal properties of alcoholysis products were investigated by FTIR, ¹H NMR, MALDI-TOF, DSC and TG experiments. It is found that poly(propylene glycol) may react with waste PET to generate copolymer instead of oligomer products, dimers or trimers, etc. This product possesses excellent shelf stability and present transparent appearance, which may hold a great potential application in chemical industry. Moreover, the alcoholysis activity of DPG is the lowest comparing with NPG and EG in degradation of waste PET.

Keywords: Alcoholysis; Poly(propylene glycol); Recycling; Thermal stability; Waste PET.

MeSH terms

Ethylenes
Phthalic Acids*
Polyethylene Terephthalates*
Recycling

Substances

Ethylenes
Phthalic Acids
Polyethylene Terephthalates
terephthalic acid