Upcycling discarded polyethylene terephthalate plastics into superior tensile strength and impact resistance materials with a facile one-pot process

Abstract

Discarding PET plastic (dPET) causes serious environmental pollution and enormous fossil resources waste. Processing techniques have mainly focused on the conversion of dPET into monomers, with minimal reports highlighting their transformation into high-value materials. This work intends to transform dPET into a high-performance material with potential alternative value in harsh production environments. The soft and hard segments of the thermoplastic polyester elastomeric (TPEE) molecular structure are reacted and cross-linked with dPET using a facile one-pot process, and two main polymers, (C8H4O4)n and ((C16H18O4)0.76 & sdot;(C4H8O)0.24)n are generated after the reaction. Through chemical reactions between TPEE and dPET, new characteristic products and chemical bond-crossing structures are formed, while the resulting product particles or multiple TPEE particles are anchored by the high viscosity of dPET, which endows the material with superior tensile strength (34.21 MPa) and impact resistance. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the material implies that neither the molecular chain nor the chain segments can move, while only the atoms or groups composing the molecule vibrate at their equilibrium positions. The development of this new treatment method may contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution and the improvement of the high-value conversion and utilization of dPET.