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Chemistry in Industry : Journal of Chemists and Chemical Engineers of Croatia, Vol. 72 No. 5-6 (special issue), 2023.

Professional paper

https://doi.org/10.15255/KUI.2022.072

Recycling of PET Post-consumer Bottles: Effect of the Re-extrusion Process on the Structure, Thermal Properties, and Apparent Activation Energy

Miće Jakić orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-3240-4117 ; University of Split, Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, Ruđera Boškovića 35, 21 000 Split, Croatia
Sanja Perinović Jozić orcid id orcid.org/0000-0002-0920-1138 ; University of Split, Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, Ruđera Boškovića 35, 21 000 Split, Croatia
Ivana Bandić ; University of Split, Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, Ruđera Boškovića 35, 21 000 Split, Croatia
Laura Ključe ; University of Split, Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, Ruđera Boškovića 35, 21 000 Split, Croatia

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Abstract

In this work, post-consumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) bottles were gathered, separated from other materials, and re-extruded. In order to evaluate the effect of re-extrusion on the structure of PET, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was utilised. No significant effect of the re-extrusion process on the structure of the PET sample was noticed. Obtained samples were also characterised by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in order to determine characteristic thermal transitions of PET. DSC results indicated the influence of re-extrusion; extruded PET started to melt at lower temperatures, and the crystallisation of re-extruded PET took place at significantly higher temperatures in comparison to PET. Likewise, thermogravimetric analysis (TG) was used to evaluate the effect of re-extrusion process on the thermal stability of samples. TG analysis revealed that the re-extrusion process had no effect on the thermal stability of the investigated PET samples. Finally, the activation energy of thermal degradation of the investigated samples was calculated using iso-conversional Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Friedman method. Consequently, higher activation energies were noticed for the re-extruded PET sample in comparison to the PET bottle sample, which is a good argument in support of PET bottle recycling.

Keywords

poly(ethylene terephthalate); post-consumer bottles; recycling; re-extrusion; thermal properties; activation energy

Hrčak ID:

301816

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/301816

Publication date:

17.5.2023.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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