Towards recycling purpose: Converting PET plastic waste back to terephthalic acid using pH-responsive phase transfer catalyst

doi:10.1016/j.cjche.2021.10.028

中国化学工程学报 ›› 2022, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (11): 53-60.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2021.10.028

• Full Length Article • 上一篇下一篇

Towards recycling purpose: Converting PET plastic waste back to terephthalic acid using pH-responsive phase transfer catalyst

Yueqing Wang¹, Hongxing Wang², Hongmei Chen³, Hantao Liu¹

1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China;
2. State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China;
3. School of Instrument and Electronics, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China

收稿日期:2021-07-13 修回日期:2021-10-14 出版日期:2022-11-18 发布日期:2023-01-18
通讯作者: Yueqing Wang,E-mail:yueqingwang@nuc.edu.cn;Hantao Liu,E-mail:rcspseet@126.com
基金资助:
This work thanks to the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22005276).

Towards recycling purpose: Converting PET plastic waste back to terephthalic acid using pH-responsive phase transfer catalyst

Yueqing Wang¹, Hongxing Wang², Hongmei Chen³, Hantao Liu¹

1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China;
2. State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China;
3. School of Instrument and Electronics, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China

Received:2021-07-13 Revised:2021-10-14 Online:2022-11-18 Published:2023-01-18
Contact: Yueqing Wang,E-mail:yueqingwang@nuc.edu.cn;Hantao Liu,E-mail:rcspseet@126.com
Supported by:
This work thanks to the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22005276).

摘要/Abstract

摘要： Converting polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes to its monomer and valuable chemicals via eco-friendly chemical method is still a challenge task. Previously, phase transfer catalysts used for alkaline hydrolysis were soluble in reaction media and hardly separated after reaction. Here, we reported several pH-responsive catalysts combined alkyl quaternary ammonium units with heteropolyacid anion for achieving stepwise product/catalyst separation and catalyst recycling. The properties of homogeneous/heterogeneous transfer behavior allow catalyst to be easily separated from reaction media by adjusting of pH value. Among them, [C₁₆H₃₃N(CH₃)₃]₃PW₁₂O₄₀ (abbreviated as [CTA]₃PW) exhibits the highest activity and the most suitable pH responsive values. Such a pH triggered switchable catalytic system not only shows good performance for depolymerization of pure PET, but also some real PET wastes such as coloured trays and PE/PET complex films could be completely degraded into terephthalic acid. Additionally, the reaction kinetics and activation energy of PET alkaline hydrolysis also studied with and without pH-responsive [CTA]₃PW.

关键词: Polyethylene terephthalate, Alkaline hydrolysis, pH-responsive catalyst, Terephthalic acid

Abstract: Converting polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes to its monomer and valuable chemicals via eco-friendly chemical method is still a challenge task. Previously, phase transfer catalysts used for alkaline hydrolysis were soluble in reaction media and hardly separated after reaction. Here, we reported several pH-responsive catalysts combined alkyl quaternary ammonium units with heteropolyacid anion for achieving stepwise product/catalyst separation and catalyst recycling. The properties of homogeneous/heterogeneous transfer behavior allow catalyst to be easily separated from reaction media by adjusting of pH value. Among them, [C₁₆H₃₃N(CH₃)₃]₃PW₁₂O₄₀ (abbreviated as [CTA]₃PW) exhibits the highest activity and the most suitable pH responsive values. Such a pH triggered switchable catalytic system not only shows good performance for depolymerization of pure PET, but also some real PET wastes such as coloured trays and PE/PET complex films could be completely degraded into terephthalic acid. Additionally, the reaction kinetics and activation energy of PET alkaline hydrolysis also studied with and without pH-responsive [CTA]₃PW.

Key words: Polyethylene terephthalate, Alkaline hydrolysis, pH-responsive catalyst, Terephthalic acid

Yueqing Wang, Hongxing Wang, Hongmei Chen, Hantao Liu. Towards recycling purpose: Converting PET plastic waste back to terephthalic acid using pH-responsive phase transfer catalyst[J]. 中国化学工程学报, 2022, 51(11): 53-60.

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Towards recycling purpose: Converting PET plastic waste back to terephthalic acid using pH-responsive phase transfer catalyst

Towards recycling purpose: Converting PET plastic waste back to terephthalic acid using pH-responsive phase transfer catalyst

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