ABSTRACT
The attempt to reduce the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment shows the recycling as an interesting area and the chemical recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalat) (PET) post-consumer allied to the reaction with aliphatic polyesters one of these methods to help solving this problem. Therefore, this work presents a study of bulk polymerization of PET post-consumer with poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), plasticized with sodium triethyl citrate, aiming to obtain new aliphatic-aromatics copolyesters potentially biodegradable. The copolymerization occurred in a glass reactor with N2 atmosphere. Different proportions were added of PET (obtained from soda packaging) and PLLA (obtained by a polycondensation reaction of L-lactic acid), among 10 and 90wt% and the temperature was gradually increased until melting. After that, the additives were added in the fluid mass which was shed in silicone molds. This method was adequate to synthesize copolymers of PET-co-PLLA and it could be confirmed through the 1H RMN analyses. The TGA analyses showed that the thermal stability increases with the raise of PET rate. After the characterization, the soil biodegradation was curried, which was accompanied by NMR 1H, FTIR-ATR visual analyses, SEM, DSC and TGA before and after buried in prepared soil. The results showed that the aliphatic fraction is the first to suffer scission of molecular chain, indicating a preference of the microorganisms from soil to PLLA and this method was adequate to synthesize new copolymers from soda packing post-consumer potentially biodegradable when discarded on environment.
Keywords:
poly(L-lactic acid); poly(ethylene terephthalat); PET-co-PLLA; copolymerization; biodegradation; recycling
