KINETIC-STUDY ON DEPOLYMERIZATION BY GLYCOLYSIS OF POLY(ETHYLENE-TEREPHTHALATE) WITH BISPHENOL-A

Glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) with bisphenol A at high temperature (190 degrees C - 230 degrees C) was carried out in an autoclave reactor. Kinetic study on depolymerization of glycolysis was conducted. The reaction temperature and the ratio of bisphenol A to poly(ethylene terephthalate) played the key roles on the reaction rate and the extent of glycolysis. For describing the kinetic behavior properly, a mechanism consisting of six principle equilibrium reactions was proposed. Based on this mechanism, the kinetic parameters were obtained through the Runge-Kutta numerical integration. Excellent agreements between the calculated values and the experimental data were achieved, thus verified the appropriateness of the proposed mechanism.