Abstract

Kinetics study of Unsaturated Polyestersynthesized from waste PET

Waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is glycolyzed along with virginPET. A higher proportion of virgin PET in the mixture has the ability toconsume more glycols during glycolysis. This gives rise to a glycolyzed PET(GPET1), which contains a lesser amount of free glycol and shows thehighest hydroxyl value. During polyesterification of the polyester diol(glycolyzed PET) with maleic acid, the degree of polymerization (DPn),extent of reaction and acid value is observed to be increasing with an increasein the virgin PET content in the mixture. This is believed to be due to theincreasing presence of BHET (bis-hydroxy ethylene terephthalate) in theglycolyzed PET

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