Aminolysis of polyethylene terephthalate waste

Polyethylene terephthalate in the form of waste fibres and disposable soft drink bottles was subjected to depolymerisation through aminolysis using excess of ethanolamine in the presence of different simple chemicals, namely glacial acetic acid, sodium acetate and potassium sulphate, as catalysts. The product bis(2-hydroxy ethylene)terephthalamide (BHETA) obtained was in its pure form with sufficiently high yields with all the catalysts. The purified product was characterised by elemental analysis, melting point, IR spectroscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The process of aminolysis reported here is economically viable since yields of BHETA are as high as 91%, it has potential for further reactions to obtain useful products and the chemicals used as catalysts are common and cheaply available. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.