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The use of 1,3-dimethylimidazolium-2-carboxylate as an organocatalyst for the glycolysis of waste PET, poly(ethylene terephthalate), is reported for the first time. Postconsumer PET was completely depolymerized in less than 1 h at 180 °C with up to 60% of bis(2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate) (BHET) recovered by precipitation after cooling the reaction mixture. Under comparable conditions, the basic ionic liquid, 1,3-dimethylimidazolium acetate, was a significantly less effective catalyst suggesting that catalysis occurs through formation of a nucleophilic N-heterocyclic carbene.
Wang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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