Degradation of poly(butylene terephthalate) in different supercritical alcohol solvents |
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| Authors: | Junhe Yang Jie Huang Minking K Chyu Qing‐Ming Wang Danliu Xiong Zibin Zhu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China;2. School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China;3. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261 |
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| Abstract: | Reactions were carried out in a batch autoclave reactor. Poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) and different alcohol solvents were used in the vessel. The reaction products were analyzed by infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Alcoholysis of PBT occurred in supercritical methanol, ethanol, and propanol, and we obtained dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), diethyl terephthalate (DET), and dipropyl terephthalate (DPT), respectively. The conversion of PBT at different temperatures showed similar trends but different degradation degrees. The reactivity for the alcoholysis of PBT in supercritical methanol was much higher than those in supercritical ethanol and propanol. DMT and 1,4‐butanediol obtained from the depolymerization of PBT in supercritical methanol reached 98.5 and 72.3%, respectively, at 583 K for 75 min. The yield of DET reached 76% for 75 min. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010 |
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| Keywords: | degradation monomers recycling |
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