Single-Fiber Visualization of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) during Alkaline Hydrolysis: Testing of Surface Reaction Model and Mechanism

IF 5.1 1区化学 Q1 POLYMER SCIENCE

Macromolecules Pub Date : 2025-05-04 DOI:10.1021/acs.macromol.4c02602

Abigail K. Nason, Jingzhi Hu, Brady A. Bruno, Jin Suntivich

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a primary category of waste plastics. Chemical depolymerization can transform waste PET into monomers for circularity. However, the heterogeneity of consumer PET products can affect the depolymerization uniformity. We characterize this variation by visualizing the alkaline hydrolysis of single PET fibers. We establish the distribution of depolymerization kinetics through image analysis, tracking individual PET fibers and their evolution. The distributions of the hydrolysis kinetics are reported, where the average rates were used to model the bulk PET weight loss. We further found that textile additives affected the hydrolysis kinetics, a finding we attribute to changes in the hydrolysis sites on the PET surface, which alter the activation barrier. We conclude that additives could be a source of hydrolysis variations, leading to nonuniform PET depolymerization in large-scale recycling reactors.

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碱性水解过程中聚对苯二甲酸乙酯单纤维的可视化：表面反应模型和机理的测试

聚对苯二甲酸乙酯（PET）是一类主要的废塑料。化学解聚可将废PET转化为单体，形成圆形。然而，消费PET产品的非均质性会影响解聚的均匀性。我们通过可视化单个PET纤维的碱性水解来表征这种变化。我们通过图像分析建立解聚动力学的分布，跟踪单个PET纤维及其演变。报告了水解动力学的分布，其中平均速率用于模拟散装PET失重。我们进一步发现，纺织品添加剂影响水解动力学，我们将这一发现归因于PET表面水解位点的变化，这改变了活化屏障。我们得出结论，添加剂可能是水解变化的一个来源，导致大型回收反应器中PET解聚不均匀。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Macromolecules 工程技术-高分子科学

CiteScore

9.30

自引率

16.40%

发文量

942

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Macromolecules publishes original, fundamental, and impactful research on all aspects of polymer science. Topics of interest include synthesis (e.g., controlled polymerizations, polymerization catalysis, post polymerization modification, new monomer structures and polymer architectures, and polymerization mechanisms/kinetics analysis); phase behavior, thermodynamics, dynamic, and ordering/disordering phenomena (e.g., self-assembly, gelation, crystallization, solution/melt/solid-state characteristics); structure and properties (e.g., mechanical and rheological properties, surface/interfacial characteristics, electronic and transport properties); new state of the art characterization (e.g., spectroscopy, scattering, microscopy, rheology), simulation (e.g., Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, multi-scale/coarse-grained modeling), and theoretical methods. Renewable/sustainable polymers, polymer networks, responsive polymers, electro-, magneto- and opto-active macromolecules, inorganic polymers, charge-transporting polymers (ion-containing, semiconducting, and conducting), nanostructured polymers, and polymer composites are also of interest. Typical papers published in Macromolecules showcase important and innovative concepts, experimental methods/observations, and theoretical/computational approaches that demonstrate a fundamental advance in the understanding of polymers.