Issue 1, 2025
From the journal:

Industrial Chemistry & Materials

Depolymerization of PET with ethanol by homogeneous iron catalysts applied for exclusive chemical recycling of cloth waste†

Nor Wahida Binti Awang,ab   Muhammad Aidel Bin Ratno Hadiyono,b   Mohamed Mehawed Abdellatifa  and  Kotohiro Nomura ORCID logo *a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami Osawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
E-mail: ktnomura@tmu.ac.jp

b Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak Branch, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

Acid-, base-free depolymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with ethanol catalyzed by FeCl3, FeBr3 (1.0–5.0 mol%) gave diethyl terephthalate (DET) and ethylene glycol (EG) exclusively (98–99%, 160–180 °C), and FeCl3 showed better catalytic performance in terms of activity. The FeCl3 catalyst enabled exclusive, selective depolymerization of PET from textile waste to afford DET (and recovered cotton waste), strongly suggesting the possibility of chemical recycling of cloth waste by the transesterification in this catalysis.

Keywords: Depolymerization; PET; Chemical recycling; Textile waste management; Homogeneous catalyst.

Graphical abstract: Depolymerization of PET with ethanol by homogeneous iron catalysts applied for exclusive chemical recycling of cloth waste

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4IM00081A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Jun 2024
Accepted
06 Aug 2024
First published
06 Aug 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Ind. Chem. Mater., 2025,3, 49-56

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Depolymerization of PET with ethanol by homogeneous iron catalysts applied for exclusive chemical recycling of cloth waste

N. W. B. Awang, M. A. B. R. Hadiyono, M. M. Abdellatif and K. Nomura, Ind. Chem. Mater., 2025, 3, 49 DOI: 10.1039/D4IM00081A

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