PET synthesis in the presence of new aluminum catalysts

A new polycondensation catalyst (ethylene glycol aluminum) was synthesized and applied in PET synthesis. It has been characterized by spectral studies (IR, NMR). The catalytic activity of organic aluminum compound was discussed in this paper. In this investigation, the synthesis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is presented using ethylene glycol (EG) and terephthalic acid (TPA). The result proved that ethylene glycol aluminum was the real catalytic material. And it was proved to be the most efficient catalyst for the polycondesation reaction among the organic aluminum compounds. Similar catalytic activity has been observed for ethylene glycol aluminum compared to ethylene glycol antimony. The esterification reaction was monitored by measuring the distilled water as a function of time and the modeling of this process was carried out from these data. The received PET samples were characterized by viscometry, carboxyl end-group content and diethylene glycol (DEG) content. A mechanism of aluminum catalysis has been proposed to explain these observations.