Kinetic study on depolymerization by glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) with bisphenol A

Glycolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) with bisphenol A at high temperature (190°C–230°C) was carried out in an autoclave reactor. Kinetic study on depolymerization of glycolysis was conducted. The reaction temperature and the ratio of bisphenol A to poly(ethylene terephthalate) played the key roles on the reaction rate and the extent of glycolysis. For describing the kinetic behavior properly, a mechanism consisting of six principle equilibrium reactions was proposed. Based on this mechanism, the kinetic parameters were obtained through the Runge‐Kutta numerical integration. Excellent agreements between the calculated values and the experimental data were achieved, thus verified the appropriateness of the proposed mechanism.