1. The Impact of Biodegradable Plastics in the Properties of Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate
- Author
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Harrison De La Rosa-Ramírez, Miguel Aldas, M.D. Samper, Juan López-Martínez, Jose Miguel Ferri, David Bertomeu, and Cristina Pavon
- Subjects
Environmental Engineering ,Materials science ,Polymers and Plastics ,technology, industry, and agriculture ,02 engineering and technology ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Microstructure ,Biodegradable polymer ,Miscibility ,Synthetic materials ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,020401 chemical engineering ,chemistry ,Chemical engineering ,Materials Chemistry ,Polyethylene terephthalate ,Degradation (geology) ,0204 chemical engineering ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Since biodegradable materials are unwittingly mixed with synthetic materials, this work aimed to study the feasibility of reliably identifying some biopolymers, treated as contaminants, in the recycling process of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The results showed that the miscibility between PET-PLA and PET-PHB is good. However, PHB is degraded in the recycling of PET due to the high processing temperatures used; meanwhile, PET and TPS are poorly miscible, characteristics also reflected in the microstructure. The contaminants decrease the mechanical properties of the recycled PET. WCA, FTIR, and DSC, do not allow to identify of these contaminants. FESEM resulted in the most successful technique to detect the biodegradable polymers in the PET matrix. No significant degradation of PET under composting conditions was obtained due to the presence of biodegradable polymers, and the effects of the biodegradable contaminants continue to reduce the mechanical performance of the recycled PET after 1 year of storage.
- Published
- 2021