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Decolorization and reusing of PET depolymerization waste liquid by electrochemical method with magnetic nanoelectrodes

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Abstract

This work is aimed at electrochemical decolorization of real waste liquid which obtained in the PET depolymerization process. Firstly, PET fabrics were glycolysized by utilizing excess ethylene glycol (EG). Then, the glycolysis product was mixed with water and purified through repeated crystallization to get bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) crystal. At last, the waste liquid of the depolymerization process was electrochemical decolorized by utilizing chitosan/Fe3O4 nanoparticles as the dispersed electrodes under a DC voltage. The UV-Vis absorptions at 338, 531, and 635 nm which were due to the dyes in the waste liquid decreased with the electrolysis time. In contrast, slight change of absorption of EG (at 322 nm) indicated that EG was not destroyed in the electrolytic process. The variation of color removal efficiency with dosage of chitosan/Fe3O4 nanoparticles, applied voltage, concentration of electrolyte, pH and electrolytic time were investigated. The max color removal efficiency was 87.24%. PET fabrics were depolymerized by using the decolorized waste liquid or mixture of decolorized waste liquid and EG (1:1 v/v), and the yields of BHET were 72.3% and 76.6%, respectively. The products were BHET without dyes which were confirmed by DSC and FTIR spectroscopy.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National High-tech R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFB0302901), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. JUSRP51723B), the China Scholarship Council (No. 201706795025), the Open Project Program of Fujian Key Laboratory of Novel Functional Fibers and Materials (Minjiang University) (No. FKLTFM1713), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31501566).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Eco-Textiles, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China

    Mengjuan Li & Xiaoqiang Li

  2. College of Textile & Clothing, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China

    Mengjuan Li, Yanyan Li, Jing Lu & Xiaoqiang Li

  3. Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Ministry of Education, School of Food Engineering and Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China

    Yang Lu

Authors
  1. Mengjuan Li
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  2. Yanyan Li
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  3. Jing Lu
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  4. Xiaoqiang Li
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  5. Yang Lu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mengjuan Li.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

Highlights

• This work aimed at electrochemical decolorization of real waste liquid which is obtained in the PET depolymerization process.

• The PET depolymerization waste liquid included ethylene glycol, water, and dyes that were electrolyzed in a three-dimensional electrode reactor under DC voltage.

• The chitosan/Fe3O4 dispersed electrodes facilitated the electrolytic efficiency and could be collected by magnet after reaction.

• The decolorized PET depolymerization waste liquid could be reused for glycolysis of PET without color interference.

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Li, M., Li, Y., Lu, J. et al. Decolorization and reusing of PET depolymerization waste liquid by electrochemical method with magnetic nanoelectrodes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 34531–34539 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3377-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3377-0

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