Chemical degradation and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET): a review

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most common plastics, which is mainly used in food packaging and textiles. In recent years, the massive use of PET has led to the destruction of the ecological environment, and it is necessary to develop green, low-cost, and efficient recycling technologies to alleviate such problems. In this paper, we summarized the advantages and disadvantages of chemical degradation of PET in the past decade, including alcoholysis, hydrolysis, aminolysis and pyrolysis. Among them, several new catalysts have been applied to the depolymerization of plastics, such as ionic liquids, eutectic solvents, metal–organic frameworks and polyoxometalate, which not only shorten the reaction time, but also increase the yield of the product and the conversion of PET. This review emphatically introduced the conversion of PET and the yield of the product under different parameters, and clarified the direction of future research on the chemical degradation of PET.