Organocatalytic depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) |
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| Authors: | Kazuki Fukushima Olivier Coulembier Julien M Lecuyer Hamid A Almegren Abdullah M Alabdulrahman Fares D Alsewailem Melanie A Mcneil Philippe Dubois Robert M Waymouth Hans W Horn Julia E Rice James L Hedrick |
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| Institution: | 1. IBM Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, California 95120;2. Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials (LPCM), Center of Innovation and Research in Materials and Polymer (CIRMAP), University of Mons, Place du Parc 23, B‐7000 Mons, Belgium;3. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, San Jose State University, San Jose, California 95192;4. Petrochemicals Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia;5. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 |
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| Abstract: | We describe the organocatalytic depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), using a commercially available guanidine catalyst, 1,5,7‐triazabicyclo4.4.0]dec‐5‐ene (TBD). Postconsumer PET beverage bottles were used and processed with 1.0 mol % (0.7 wt %) of TBD and excess amount of ethylene glycol (EG) at 190 °C for 3.5 hours under atmospheric pressure to give bis(2‐hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) in 78% isolated yield. The catalyst efficiency was comparable to other metal acetate/alkoxide catalysts that are commonly used for depolymerization of PET. The BHET content in the glycolysis product was subject to the reagent loading. This catalyst influenced the rate of the depolymerization as well as the effective process temperature. We also demonstrated the recycling of the catalyst and the excess EG for more than 5 cycles. Computational and experimental studies showed that both TBD and EG activate PET through hydrogen bond formation/activation to facilitate this reaction. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011 |
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| Keywords: | catalysis degradation depolymerization glycolysis organocatalyst poly(ethylene terephthalate) recycling |
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