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Depolymerization of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) in supercritical methanol
Author(s) -
Zhang HaoHong,
Xiang HongWei,
Yang Yong,
Xu YuanYuan,
Li YongWang
Publication year - 2004
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.13713
Subject(s) - depolymerization , supercritical fluid , autoclave , materials science , methanol , yield (engineering) , activation energy , arrhenius plot , monomer , polymer chemistry , dimethyl terephthalate , reaction rate constant , polyester , crystallinity , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , chemistry , polymer , kinetics , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , engineering
The depolymerization of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) in supercritical methanol was carried out with a batch‐type autoclave reactor at temperatures ranging from 280 to 340°C, at pressures ranging from 2.0 to 14.0 MPa, and for reaction time of up to 60 min. PTT quantitatively decomposed into dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and 1,3‐propaniol (PDO) under the designed conditions. The yields of DMT and PDO greatly increased as the temperature rose. The yields of the monomers markedly increased as the pressure increased to 10.0 MPa, and they leveled off at higher pressures. The final yield of DMT at 320°C and 10.0 MPa reached 98.2%, which was much closer to the extent of the complete reaction. A kinetic model was used to describe the depolymerization reaction, and it fit the experimental data well. The dependence of the forward rate constant on the reaction temperature was correlated with an Arrhenius plot, which gave an activation energy of 56.8 kJ/mol. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 2363–2368, 2004