ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Efficient recycling of polyester and microcrystalline cellulose through one-step extraction from waste polyester-cotton blended fabrics with deep eutectic solvents

Meirong Wang, Sheng Shi, Fei Li, Wensheng Hou, Hong Guo, Shuhua Wang, Husheng Jia, and Jinming Dai

College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China

E-mail: shisheng@tyut.edu.cn

Received: 19 November 2021  Accepted: 19 April 2022

Abstract:

In order to extract polyester (PET) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) from waste polyester-cotton blended fabrics (WPBFs), a deep eutectic solvent (DES) synthesized from choline chloride (ChCl) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (TsOH) was developed as the treatment solvent. The orthogonal experiment method was designed to explore the optimal conditions for the separation process (75 vol.% DES, 110 °C, 10 min). The PET component was easily separated after the degradation of the cotton component from WPBFs. Recycled and untreated products were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), and tensile tests. The results showed that the yields of recycled PET (R-PET) and MCC were 99.20, and 69.46%, respectively. Furthermore, glucose was also obtained with a yield of 38.91%. In particular, there was no significant deterioration in the properties of R-PET. MCC was obtained with crystallinity of 86.46%, which can be applied as the raw material of MCC in various industries. Moreover, the lifetime of the recyclable DES (ChCl/TsOH) showed that its treatment efficiency can still meet the requirement after the fifth recycling.

Keywords: Waste textile; Recycle and reuse; Hydrogen bond; Sustainability; Degradability; High-value products

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02246-5

Chemical Papers 76 (9) 5601–5612 (2022)