title: Determination of solid products from the de-polymerization of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) in supercritical methanol.
abstract: A method based on high-resolution size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) was established to analyze the solid products from the depolymerization of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) in supercritical methanol. In the qualitative analysis, four factors (chromatographic retention time, qualitative multi-wavelength ultraviolet spectra, linear internal-insert SEC and qualitative IR spectra) were considered. The main solid products from the process were dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), methyl-(2-hydroxypropyl) terephthalate (MHPT), bis(2-hydroxypropyl) terephthalate (BHPT), methyl-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (MHET), bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), and hydroxyethyl-(2-hydroxypropyl) terephthalate (HEHPT). It is found that the method is of a high resolution among the solid products and has a fine repeatability. In addition, the solid products from the de-polymerization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in similar process were also analyzed by this method. Furthermore, the effects of supercritical conditions on the distribution of the products were also discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China. zhangcm@sxicc.ac.cn
authors.forename: Changming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Haohong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianli
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Junmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D000432:Methanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates; D011108:Polymers; C498323:poly(trimethylene terephthalate); D000432:Methanol