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- Title
Efficient Alcoholysis of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) by Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide as a Green Solvent.
- Authors
Xu, Yiwei; Cui, Ran; Han, Yuqing; Jiang, Jie; Hu, Dongdong; Zhao, Ling; Xi, Zhenhao
- Abstract
In order to reduce the environmental impact of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) plastic waste, supercritical fluids were used to facilitate effective recovery via improved solvent effects. This work focuses on the mechanisms of supercritical CO2 (ScCO2) during the alcoholysis processing of PET using systematic experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results of the alcoholysis experiment indicated that PET chips can be completely depolymerized within only an hour at 473 K assisted with ScCO2 at an optimal molar ratio of CO2/ethanol of 0.2. Random scission of PET dominates the early stage of the depolymerization reaction process, while specific scission dominates the following stage. Correspondingly, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed that the solubilization and self-diffusion properties of ScCO2 facilitate the transportation of alcohol molecules into the bulk phase of PET, which leads to an accelerated diffusion of both oligomers and small molecules in the system. However, the presence of excessive CO2 has a negative impact on depolymerization by weakening the hydrogen bonding between polyester chain segments and ethanol, as well as decreasing the swelling degree of PET. These data provide a deep understanding of PET degradation by alcohols and the enhancement of ScCO2. It should be expected to achieve an efficient and high-yield depolymerization process of wasted polyesters assisted with ScCO2 at a relatively low temperature.
- Subjects
ALCOHOLYSIS; SUPERCRITICAL carbon dioxide; POLYETHYLENE terephthalate; SUPERCRITICAL fluids; ETHYLENE; PLASTIC scrap; SMALL molecules; OLIGOMERS
- Publication
Polymers (20734360), 2024, Vol 16, Issue 11, p1564
- ISSN
2073-4360
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/polym16111564