Process analysis of depolymerization polybutylene terephthalate in supercritical methanol

The characteristics of depolymerization of PBT in supercritical methanol were investigated in the range of 453-533 K by using a high-pressure reactor. Based on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the products, a depolymerization-reaction model was proposed to explain the depolymerization and reaction mechanism, i.e. ester exchange reaction occurred randomly along the chain of PBT. It was suggested that the process of depolymerization consisted of subcritical region, transitional region and supercritical region. In the first region, PBT mainly showed a swelling process in the methanol with slow decrease in molecular weight and little conversion. In the second region, PBT dissolved quickly with high depolymerization rate. While in the third region, the molecular weight of PBT decreased quickly with a thorough depolymerization in few minutes. DMT and BG obtained from the depolymerization of PBT in supercritical methanol reached 98.5% and 72.3%, respectively.     

A comparative study on thermal and catalytic degradation of polybutylene terephthalate

A comparative study on the thermal and catalytic degradation of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) at atmospheric pressure was conducted. The weight loss of PBT under thermal degradation was significantly influenced by the temperature between 360 °C and 380 °C, but little affected by the PBT particle size. Four groups of catalysts include metal chloride, metal oxide, metal acetate, and metal copper powder were used to test PBT degradation activity. Copper (II) chloride is the most active one for increasing the percentage PBT weight loss more than 100% in comparison with the result of thermal degradation at a temperature of 360 °C for 30 min. PBT and catalyst mixtures can be prepared by impregnation and physical method, the former resulted in a better PBT degradation. The percentage PBT weight loss in the presence of CuCl₂ increased steadily between 320 °C and 380 °C which was different from the results of thermal degradation. The time for obtaining a same percentage PBT weight loss reduced effectively when compared to the catalytic to thermal degradation. The weight ratio of CuCl₂/PBT was tested between 0 and 0.2 and the optimal ratio was 0.1. The gaseous product distribution analyzed by GC/MS for PBT thermal and catalytic degradation revealed almost the same and the major products were ethane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, 1-butene, 2-butene, 1,3-butadiene, and butadiene dimmer. But the relative abundance of major products was changed, especially for 1,3-butadiene increased dramatically, and a new chlorocompound was produced in catalytic degradation. In condensed liquid product, both the number and the molar mass of components were more and greater than that of in gaseous product and 4-heptylacetophenone was the most abundance product. In PBT catalytic degradation, 4-heptylacetophenone and some products were decreased and some even disappeared completely while the abundance of benzoic acid increased and three new products were generated.     

聚对苯二甲酸丙二醇酯的甲醇解聚研究

在高压反应器中研究了聚对苯二甲酸丙二醇酯的甲醇解聚反应规律,考察了反应温度、时间等对解聚反应的影响。结果表明,单体收率随反应温度的升高、反应时间的延长而增加;利用凝胶色谱分析了反应后固体产物的组成,利用羧甲基浓度随反应时间的变化建立了动力学方程,计算得到解聚反应的活化能为87.8kJ/mol。     

PET,PBT结晶过程Avrami方程的探讨

用解偏振光法研究了PET,PBT以及PET-PBT,PBT-PBI共聚物在不同条件下的等温结晶过程.结果表明,Avrami指数n值和结晶速度常数随条件不同呈明显规律变化,且n值在绝大多数情况下不成整数.由此提出了这样的假设:n值是一个与晶核中结晶生长点数目相关的参数.     

Morphological studies of deformed polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)

PBT is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer whose deformation behavior highly depends on processing parameters. This makes it a model polymer for investigating morphological changes caused by deformation on the spherulitic and lamellar level. In the neck region all states of deformation of the spherulites are observed. Even in the fibrillar phase the borders of the spherulites remain visible. The spherulitic structure is not totally destructed in the neck. The lamellar structure of the fibrillar phase significantly differs from that of the spherulitic region. The lamellae are orientated with respect to the direction of deformation and the lamellae heights are reduced distinctly. Scanning electron microscopy of fracture surfaces reveals for some samples a sharp frontier between spherulitic and fibrillar region. This leads to the conclusion that the necking process may be a phase transition between an isotropic and a highly orientated phase, as predicted for a Van der Waals network.     

Study on depolymerization of polycarbonate in supercritical ethanol

The characteristics of depolymerization of PC in supercritical ethanol were investigated in the range of 483-563 K by using a high-pressure batch autoclave reactor. Based on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the products, a depolymerization-reaction model was proposed to explain the reaction mechanism, i.e. random scission and ester exchange reaction occurred simultaneously during the process of depolymerizaition of PC. It was suggested that the process of depolymerization consisted of subcritical region, transitional region and supercritical region. It was indicated that PC degraded with slow decrease of molecular weight determined by GPC and with the conversion of 7.5% at 513 K in subcritical region. While in the supercritical region, the molecular weight of PC decreased quickly and degraded completely in 30 min at 563 K. Continuous-distribution kinetics could be used to describe the mechanism of polymer degradation and the energy of activation for the random scission of PC in the supercritical region was 97.2 kJ/mol. Moreover, PC could be degraded completely into diethyl carbonate (DEC) and bisphenol A (BPA) with the yields of 89% and 90%, respectively, in supercritical region.     

TSDC and DSC Study of Effects of Physical Aging on Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT)

The impact of the physical aging process on the electrical and thermal properties of semicrystalline polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) was investigated by means of thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The TSDC technique was used to study the relaxation modes of PBT in the temperature range ?50° to + 120°C. The obtained spectra revealed two peaks located at temperature maxima of 45° and 93°C. The peak appearing at 45°C corresponds to the dielectric manifestation of the glass transition phenomenon (α-relaxation). The aim of this work is to study the effect of physical aging on this relaxation. The recording of TSDC peaks of aged PBT at different temperatures for different times revealed a reduction in their intensities and their shift towards higher temperatures when the aging becomes significant. This result can be explained by the diminution of molecular chain mobility, which is directly related to the area under the peak representing the polarization of the sample. This result was confirmed by DSC measurements, which revealed the growth and the shift of the peak, which is superimposed on the jump of the heat capacity, located around 38°C and characteristic of the glass transition, towards higher temperatures where aging becomes significant.     

Crystallization kinetics of poly(trimethylene terephthalate)

The isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) have been investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized light microscopy (PLM). Enthalpy data of exotherm from isothermal crystallization were analyzed using the Avrami theory. The average value of the Avrami exponent, n, is about 2.8. From the melt, PTT crystallizes according to a spherulite morphology. The spherulite growth rate and the overall crystallization rate depend on crystallization temperature. The increase in the spherulitic radius was examined by polarized light microscopy. Using values of transport parameters common to many polymers (U* = 1500 cal/mol, T_∞= T_g − 30 °C) together with experimentally determined values of T (248 °C) and T_g (44 °C), the nucleation parameter, k_g, for PTT was determined. On the basis of secondary nucleation analyses, a transition between regimes III and II was found in the vicinity of 194 °C (ΔT ≅ 54 K). The ratio of k_g of these two regimes is 2.1, which is very close to 2.0 as predicted by the Lauritzen–Hoffman theory. The lateral surface‐free energy, σ = 10.89 erg/cm² and the fold surface‐free energy, σ_e = 56.64 erg/cm² were determined. The latter leads to a work of chain‐folding, q = 4.80 kcal/mol folds, which is comparable to PET and PBT previously reported. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 934–941, 2000     

Isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(propylene terephthalate)

The kinetics of crystallization of poly(propylene terephthalate) (PPT) samples of different molecular weights were studied under both isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. The Avrami and Lauritzen–Hoffmann treatments were applied to evaluate kinetic parameters of PPT isothermal crystallization. It was found that crystallization is faster for low‐molecular‐weight samples. The modified Avrami equation, and the combined Avrami–Ozawa method were found to successfully describe the nonisothermal crystallization process. Also, the analysis of Lauritzen–Hoffmmann was tested and it resulted in values close to those obtained with isothermal crystallization data. The nonisothermal kinetic data were corrected for the effect of the temperature lag and shifted alone with the isothermal kinetic data to obtain a single master curve, according to the method of Chan and Isayev, testifying to the consistency between the isothermal and corrected nonisothermal data. A new method for ranking of polymers, referring to the crystallization rates, was also introduced. This involved a new index that combines the maximum crystallization rate observed during cooling with the average crystallization rates over the temperature range of the crystallization peak. Furthermore, the effective energy barrier of the dynamic process was evaluated with the isoconversional methods of Flynn and Friedmann. It was found that the energy barrier is lower for the low‐molecular‐weight PPT. The effect of the catalyst remnants on the crystallization kinetics was also investigated and it was found that this is significant only for low‐molecular‐weight samples. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3775–3796, 2004     

Study of H-bond characteristics in sub- and supercritical methanol

Classical molecular dynamics simulations of various methanol phase lines near the saturation curve and the critical point have been performed to study the changes in H-bonded clusters structure at transition of methanol to supercritical state. Analysis of H-bonds statistics with combined distance-energy H-bond criterion showed that the correlations between topological characteristics of H-bonds and the mole fraction of H-bonded molecules have unique functional representation despite the phase path applied. In the present study, an attempt has been also made to evaluate the degree of hydrogen bonding by combining the DFT computations on classical MD configurations with the natural bond orbital analysis of the waves functions obtained.     

Isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) under the influence of self-seeding nucleation

The effect of self-seeding nucleation on the crystallization behavior of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) was studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated that the crystallization temperature of PTT notably increased after self-seeding nucleation. Avrami equation was applied in the analysis of the isothermal crystallization process of PTT. The resulting average value of the Avrami exponent at n = 3.34 suggests that primary crystallization may correspond to a three-dimensional spherulitic growth. Self-seeding nucleation, leading to a decrease in active energy for crystallization and chain folding work, promotes the overall crystallization process of PTT. Translated from Acta Polymerica Sinica, 2006, (3): 414–417 (in Chinese)     

Synthesis and characterization of azo dyestuff based on bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate derived from depolymerized waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers

This work aimed at effectively utilizing the chemically depolymerized waste poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) fibers into useful products for the textile industry.PET fibers were glycolytically degraded by excess ethylene glycol as depolymerizing agent and zinc acetate dihydrate as catalyst.The glycolysis product,bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate(BHET),was purified through repeated crystallization to get an average yield above 80%.Then,BHET was nitrated,reduced,and azotized to get diazonium salt.Finally,the produced diazonium salt was coupled with 1-(4-sulfophenyl)-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone to get azo dyestuff.The structures of BHET and azo dyestuff were identified by FT1 R and ~1H NMR spectra and elemental analysis.Nylon filaments dyed by the synthesized azo dyestuff with the dye bath pH from 4.14 to 5.88 showed bright yellow color.The performances of the dyestuff were described with dye uptake,color fastness,K/S,L~*,a~*,b~*.and △E~* values.     

Random copolymers of poly(butylene terephthalate): Effect of thiodiethylene terephthalate units on melting behaviour and crystallization kinetics

The melting behavior and the crystallization kinetics of poly(butylene terephthalate/thiodiethylene terephthalate) copolymers were investigated by DSC technique. The multiple endotherms were influenced both by T _c and composition. By applying the Hoffman—Weeks' method, T _m ⁰ the of the copolymers was derived. The isothermal crystallization kinetics was analyzed according to the Avrami's treatment. Values of the exponent n close to 3 were obtained, independently of T _c and composition. The introduction of thiodiethylene terephthalate units decreased the PBT crystallization rate. H _m was correlated to c _p for samples with different degree of crystallinity and the results were interpreted on the basis of the existence of an interphase.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Degradation process investigation of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer in supercritical methanol

The depolymerization of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) was investigated in sub- and supercritical methanol. The raw TPU was based on 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), poly(1,4-butylene adipate) (PBA) and extended with 1,4-butanediol (BDO). GC–MS, IR were used in product analysis which shown that the degradation products consisted of the monomers of TPU and their methylates. The quantitative analytical approaches were internal standard method of GC-FID and external standard method of HPLC-UV after derivatization with methanol. The morphological change of the reaction residues in degradation process was observed by SEM, combined with the influences of the degradation temperature and time, the depolymerization mechanisms were proposed, i.e. in HTHP methanol, the degradation started with the broken of the urethane group, the chain of TPU was separated into soft segment and hard segment by transesterification. Subsequently, the transesterification acted between methanol with the urethane group of the hard segment and the ester group of the soft segment, respectively. In the subcritical region, the main products were BDO, dimethyl adipate (DMA), and 4,4′-methylene diphenyl carbamate (MDC) which can be used in the innocuous production of MDI; and BDO, DMA, amines, tetrahydrofuran (THF), macrolides were mainly obtained in supercritical region.     

A kinetic study of the decross-linking of cross-linked polyethylene in supercritical methanol

The recycling of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) by a decross-linking reaction in supercritical methanol was studied using a batch reactor. XLPEs with initial gel contents of 45, 55 and 65% were employed and subjected to reaction temperatures between 320 and 360 °C. Complete decross-linking of XLPE was achieved in 10 min in supercritical methanol at 360 °C and 15 MPa. For the first time, chemical kinetics for the decross-linking reaction is proposed based on the gel concentration, and applicable to the reactor design. With respect to the gel concentration, the first-order reaction model agreed well with the experimental results. The evaluated kinetic constant was 0.0867 ± 0.0082 cm³/mg min at 350 °C, and the activation energy was 578 ± 25 kJ/mol.     

Halogen-free flame retarded poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) using metal oxides/PBT nanocomposites in combination with aluminium phosphinate

The flame retardancy of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) containing aluminium diethlyphosphinate (AlPi) and/or nanometric metal oxides such as TiO₂ or Al₂O₃ was investigated. In particular the different active flame retardancy mechanisms were discovered. Thermal analysis, evolved gas analysis (TG-FTIR), flammability tests (LOI, UL 94), cone calorimeter measurements and chemical analyses of residues (ATR-FTIR) were used. AlPi acts mainly in the gas phase through the release of diethylphosphic acid, which provides flame inhibition. Part of AlPi remains in the solid phase reacting with the PBT to phosphinate-terephthalate salts that decompose to aluminium phosphate at higher temperatures. The metal oxides interact with the PBT decomposition and promote the formation of additional stable carbonaceous char in the condensed phase. A combination of metal oxides and AlPi gains the better classification in the UL 94 test thanks to the combination of the different mechanisms.     

Sub- and supercritical glycolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into the monomer bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET)

Sub- and supercritical glycolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with ethylene glycol (EG) to bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) was investigated for the purpose of developing a PET recycling process. Supercritical glycolysis was carried out at 450 °C and 15.3 MPa while subcritical glycolysis was carried out at 350 °C and 2.49 MPa or at 300 °C and 1.1 MPa. High yields (gt; 90%) of the monomer BHET were obtained in both super- and subcritical cases. For the same PET/EG weight ratio of about 0.06, the optimum reaction time was 30 min for supercritical glycolysis and 75 and 120 min for two cases of subcritical glycolysis. GPC, RP-HPLC, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR, and DSC were used to characterize the polymer and reaction products. Supercritical glycolysis will be suitable to a process requiring a high throughput due to its short reaction time.     

Transesterification kinetics in the reactive blends of liquid crystalline copolyesters and poly(ethylene terephthalate)

The transesterification kinetics of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/copoly(oxybenzoate-p-terephthalate) (liquid crystalline polymer, LCP) (70/30 by weight) in the presence of small amount of bis(2-oxazoline) (BOZ) as chain extender was studied by using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance. The kinetic data was treated as a second-order reversible reaction, and it was found that the rate constants of transesterification at 270, 280 and 290 °C were 1.55×10⁻², 2.20×10⁻² and 3.01×10⁻² min⁻¹, respectively, the value of which was higher than the blend without addition of BOZ, 1.26×10⁻² min⁻¹, and the activation energy of PET/LCP transesterification was 84.4 kJ mol⁻¹.     

Thermal decomposition and stability of fatty acid methyl esters in supercritical methanol

In recent years, non-catalytic supercritical processes for biodiesel production have been proposed as alternative environmentally friendly technologies. However, conditions of high temperature and pressure that occur while biodiesel is in supercritical fluid can cause fuel degradation, resulting in low yield. In this study, we performed the thermal decomposition of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) in supercritical methanol at temperatures ranging from 325 °C to 420 °C and pressure of 23 MPa to investigate the degradation characteristics and thermal stability of biodiesel. The primary reactions we observed were isomerization, hydrogenation, and pyrolysis of FAMEs. The main pathway of degradation was deduced by analyzing the contents of degradation products. We found that if FAME has shorter chain length or is more saturated, it has higher thermal stability in supercritical methanol. All FAMEs remained stable at 325 °C or below. Based on these results, we recommend that transesterification reactions in supercritical methanol should be carried out below 325 °C (at 23 MPa) and 20 min, the temperature at which thermal decomposition of FAMEs begins to occur, to optimize high-yield biodiesel production.     

Recycling of waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) with castor oil using microwave heating

The chemical recycling of waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) using castor oil (CO) as a reagent is reported. CO presents a renewable alternative to petrochemical based reagents, e.g. glycols, and enables also substantial modification of final physico-chemical properties of a received product. Advantageously, microwave irradiation was used to accelerate the depolymerization of PET. A composition of obtained product was strongly influenced by the reaction temperature. When the decomposition of PET was performed at temperature higher than 240 °C, then a significant extent of side products based on PET oligomers and transesterified CO was observed due to dehydration and hydrolysis of CO. Contrary to that, PET decomposition took place at slow rate below 230 °C and the optimal reaction temperature lies in the relatively narrow interval from 230 °C to 240 °C. The product prepared in the optimal temperature range did not contain any high molecular weight PET oligomers. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry enabled to identify the structures included in the obtained polyol product. The maximum number of six repeating monomeric unit of PET was found in the product, which confirmed practically the complete depolymerization of PET chain and good reactivity of the acylester hydroxyl groups of CO.