Capturing ethylene glycol with dimethyl carbonate towards depolymerisation of polyethylene terephthalate at ambient temperature

Abstract

Depolymerisation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) via alkali metal alkoxide catalysed methanolysis efficiently proceeded at ambient temperature by capturing ethylene glycol (EG) with dimethyl carbonate (DMC), which biased the equilibrium toward dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) due to the thermal stability of ethylene carbonate (EC).