Chemical recycling of PET by glycolysis: Polymerization and characterization of the dimethacrylated glycolysate

In the framework of chemical recycling of polymers, leading to the generation of secondary value-added products, PET flakes taken from post-consumer soft drink bottles, were glycolyzed with DEG. The oligomers obtained were analyzed for their molecular weight and characterized by FT-IR and POM. Subsequently, dimethacrylated oligoesters of PET glycolysate (PET-GLY-DMA) were synthesized by methacrylation of the glycolyzed PET product. The resulted monomer PET-GLY-DMA was studied by FT-IR, POM and DSC. Thermal polymerization of this monomer was carried out at 80 degrees C in the presence of benzoyl peroxide as initiator. A UV-curable formulation was also prepared on the basis of neat PET-GLY-DMA, as well as by mixing PET-GLY-DMA with styrene, using DMPA as photoinitiator. Nanoparticles Of SiO2 were dispersed into PET-GLY-DMA/styrene copolymers as reinforcing agents and the mechanical properties of resins formed were studied.