Thermal and Mechanical Properties of the Recycled and Virgin PET—Part I

verfasst von

Yasemin Celik, Madina Shamsuyeva, Hans Josef Endres

Abstract

In various countries, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) represents one of the plastics with a very high recycling rate. Since currently there is no analytical method enabling direct distinction between recycled PET (rPET) and virgin PET (vPET), there are various attempts to differentiate these materials indirectly. One of these approaches claims that the recycling of PET leads to polymer chain degradation, which is reflected in changed thermal, mechanical and crystalline properties, and testing of these properties can therefore be used to distinguish rPET and vPET. However, there are many sources leading to changes in the molecular structure and consequently to the changes of the above-mentioned properties of the PET. The purpose of this study is to analyze the glass transition and melting temperature, degree of crystallinity as well as bending and impact properties of 20 different commercially available PET recyclates from 14 suppliers and evaluate the results with respect to the literature values for vPET. The main results of this study show that the range of vPET properties is so broad that all of the corresponding properties of the tested rPET lie within this range.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Kunststoff- und Kreislauftechnik

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Polymers

Band

14

Anzahl der Seiten

13

ISSN

2073-4360

Publikationsdatum

01.04.2022

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Chemie (insg.), Polymere und Kunststoffe

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 8 – Anständige Arbeitsbedingungen und wirtschaftliches Wachstum, SDG 12 – Verantwortungsvoller Konsum und Produktion

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14071326 (Zugang: Offen)