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

authored by

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.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Plastics and Circular Economy

Type

Article

Journal

Polymers

Volume

14

No. of pages

13

ISSN

2073-4360

Publication date

01.04.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemistry(all), Polymers and Plastics

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14071326 (Access: Open)