Upcycling poly(ethylene terephthalate) wastes by solvent extraction: Thermal stability and kinetics studies of the recovered <scp>PET</scp>

Everyone who drinks bottled water contributes at least 17 kg to the post-consumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (W-PET) accelerating accumulation of waste plastics (WP) that already have an annual rate increase ~4.5%. Disposals W-PET mimics a pseudo-renewable resource WP, creates many recycling and economic opportunities. This work presents method reduces burden on environment while saves energy new The recovered purified PET (PET-R) its thermal properties are reported here was obtained by solvent extraction method. Five samples PET-R were analyzed thermogravimetry study kinetics assuming degradation process followed pseudo-single component model. isoconversional Ea,α values from f(α) functions comparable each other average standard deviation 200 ± 5 kJ mol−1; which is very close value Ea pure PET. results consistent with data in literature for