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Kinetics of hydrolysis of polyethylene terephthalate pellets in nitric acid
Author(s) -
Kumar Aanchal,
Rao T. Rajeswara
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.11579
Subject(s) - nitric acid , polyethylene terephthalate , pellets , bottle , kinetics , hydrolysis , activation energy , materials science , nuclear chemistry , polyethylene , polymer chemistry , reaction rate , chemistry , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , composite material , catalysis , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
The hydrolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pellets in nitric acid was investigated to determine the kinetic parameters. Experiments were conducted with cylindrical shaped pellets in 13 M nitric acid at 80, 90, and 100°C respectively. Also, an experiment was conducted with a waste PET bottle sheet in 9.5 M nitric acid at 100°C. The kinetics of the reaction was explained by the shrinking core model with surface chemical reaction as rate controlling step and accounting for surface area reduction due to the deposition of the product terephathalic acid (TPA) on the reaction surface. The activation energy for the reaction was found to be 135 kJ/mol. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87:1781–1783, 2003