Issue 4, 2015

Deep eutectic solvents as highly active catalysts for the fast and mild glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)

Abstract

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have attracted broad attention due to their low cost, easy preparation, low toxicity, good biological compatibility and similar characteristics to those of ionic liquids (ILs). In this study, we found that not only the glycolysis time is sharply shortened under mild reaction conditions, but also the high selectivity of monomer bis(hydroxyalkyl) terephthalate (BHET) is obtained when DESs were used as catalysts. Then, the influences of technological parameters on PET degradation were investigated and the optimization conditions were obtained. Under the optimization conditions of ethylene glycol (EG) (20 g), catalyst (n(urea)/n(ZnCl2) 4/1, 0.25 g), PET (5 g), and atmospheric pressure at 170 °C for 30 min, the conversion of PET and selectivity of BHET were 100% and 83%, respectively. This time is equal to that taken by a supercritical method under 15.3 MPa at 450 °C. In addition, the degradation mechanism of PET wastes catalyzed by DESs is proposed through the experiments and DFT calculations. The high catalytic activity is attributed to the synergetic catalysis of H-bonds and coordination bonds formed between the DES catalyst and EG.

Graphical abstract: Deep eutectic solvents as highly active catalysts for the fast and mild glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Dec 2014
Accepted
23 Jan 2015
First published
23 Jan 2015

Green Chem., 2015,17, 2473-2479

Deep eutectic solvents as highly active catalysts for the fast and mild glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)

Q. Wang, X. Yao, Y. Geng, Q. Zhou, X. Lu and S. Zhang, Green Chem., 2015, 17, 2473 DOI: 10.1039/C4GC02401J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements