Structure and Properties of Reactively Extruded Opaque Post-Consumer Recycled PET
Ikusi/ Ireki
Data
2021-10-14Egilea
Candal Pazos, María Virginia
Safari, Maryam
Fernández San Martín, Mercedes
Mugica Iztueta, Miren Agurtzane
Zubitur Soroa, María Manuela
Gerrica-Echevarria, Gonzalo
Sebastián, Víctor
Irusta, Silvia
Loaeza, David
Maspoch, Maria Lluisa
Santana, Orlando O.
Polymers 13(20) : (2021) // Article ID 3531
Laburpena
The recyclability of opaque PET, which contains TiO2 nanoparticles, has not been as well-studied as that of transparent PET. The objective of this work is to recycle post-consumer opaque PET through reactive extrusion with Joncryl. The effect of the reactive extrusion process on the molecular structure and on the thermal/mechanical/rheological properties of recycling post-consumer opaque PET (r-PET) has been analyzed. A 1% w/w Joncryl addition caused a moderate increase in the molecular weight. A moderate increase in chain length could not explain a decrease in the overall crystallization rate. This result is probably due to the presence of branches interrupting the crystallizable sequences in reactive extruded r-PET (REX-r-PET). A rheological investigation performed by SAOS/LAOS/elongational studies detected important structural modifications in REX-r-PET with respect to linear r-PET or a reference virgin PET. REX-r-PET is characterized by a slow relaxation process with enlarged elastic behaviors that are characteristic of a long-chain branched material. The mechanical properties of REX-r-PET increased because of the addition of the chain extender without a significant loss of elongation at the break. The reactive extrusion process is a suitable way to recycle opaque PET into a material with enhanced rheological properties (thanks to the production of a chain extension and long-chain branches) with mechanical properties that are comparable to those of a typical virgin PET sample.
Collections
Bestelakorik adierazi ezean, itemaren baimena horrela deskribatzen da:2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).