Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) pyrolysis utilizing a thermogravimetric analyzer with presence of nano-catalyst: kinetic and thermodynamic study

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is a commonly used plastic in the industry, but it is difficult to recycle due to its tendency to produce a range of gaseous products during catalytic cracking. The current research aimed to study the effectiveness of nano-nickel oxide and nano-vanadium oxide as catalysts for the cracking of PET utilizing a thermogravimetric analyzer. The doping of the catalysts and subsequent hydrogen treatment led to a significant reduction in their sizes, with reductions of at least 50%. Of the tested catalyst–PET combinations, the V2O5-doped NiO reduction had the best activation energy at 183.8 kJ/mol and the lowest residual weight percent at 0.12 wt%. Neat PET without a catalyst was found to have a higher activation energy, ranging from 248 to 292 kJ/mol. The PET mixed with V2O5-doped NiO using the reduction method had the highest conversion rate with a maximum derivative weight percent of 19.2%, while PET mixed with V2O5-doped NiO and PET mixed with nano-V2O5 using the reduction method had a lower conversion rate of 15%. © 2023, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.