Depolymerization of Polyethyleneterephthalate is Supercritical Methanol

摘要

The depolymerization of polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) in supercritical methanol was carried out using a batch-type autoclave reactor. The total conversion and the yield of dimethylterephthalate (DMT) increased with rising temperature. The final yield of DMT at 300°C and 310°C reached 97.0% and 97.7%, respectively. The yield of DMT was markedly increased when the methanol density was 0.08 g/cm~3, and leveled off at higher densities. A kinetic model to describe the depolymerization of PET in supercritical methanol was proposed, where the scission of one ester linkage in PET by a methanol molecule produces one carboxymethyl group and one hydroxyl group. The values of the forward reaction rate constant at different temperatures were deter-mined by comparing the observed time dependence of carboxymethyl group concentration with that calculated by the proposed model. The activation energy was evaluated to be 49.9 kJ/mol, a value close to a literature value (55.7 kJ/mol).