Chemical modification of post consumer PET was carried out by reaction with sulfuric acid. The modified material was characterized by DSC, XPS and FTIR-PAS measurements. The relative intensity of trans isomer increases while it decreases for gauche isomer for reaction times from 0 up to 60 min. After 60 minutes of reaction multiple endotherms were observed, which may be related to the development of an intermediated structure, since the relative intensities of the trans and gauche isomers do not change. The ionic exchange capacity of the modified post consumer poly(ethylene terephthalate), PETS-pc, is comparable to commercial acid resins and is not affected by the reaction time. The maximum adsorption capacity, qm, and the affinity parameter, K, (111.18 ppm and 531.91 mg dye/100g adsorvent, respectively) due to the adsorption of Remazol Red were calculated for PET samples chemically modified during 30 minutes from the Langmuir adsorption isotherms. The results indicate that PETS-pc has excellent adsorvent capacity, and can be applied to treatment of textile dye effluents.
PET; chemical modification; recycling; ion exchange capacity; adsorption
