Abstract Chemical depolymerization and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a sustainable way to preserve the resources and protect the environment. In this work, methanol and ethylene glycol dispersions of ultrasmall ZnO nanoparticles are firstly adopted as pseudohomogeneous catalysts for alcoholysis of PET. The as-prepared ZnO nanoparticles have a uniform size of 4 nm and can be stable in dispersions for 6 months. In the methanolysis process of PET, the effects of various parameters on the conversion of PET and the yield of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) were investigated. The results show that higher temperature (170 °C) was beneficial to the conversion of PET and the yield of DMT, which can reach about 97% and 95% after 15 min, respectively. The excellent activity of 553 g PET h−1 (g ZnO)−1 was achieved. Furthermore, the methanolysis of PET have shorter reaction time (1/4) and higher activity (4.7 times) than the glycolysis of PET.

中文翻译：

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ZnO纳米分散体作为准均相催化剂用于聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯醇解

摘要 聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）的化学解聚和回收利用是节约资源和保护环境的可持续方式。在这项工作中，超小 ZnO 纳米粒子的甲醇和乙二醇分散体首次被用作 PET 醇解的拟均相催化剂。所制备的 ZnO 纳米粒子具有 4 nm 的均匀尺寸，并且可以在分散体中稳定 6 个月。在PET甲醇分解过程中，研究了各种参数对PET转化率和对苯二甲酸二甲酯(DMT)产率的影响。结果表明，较高的温度（170℃）有利于PET的转化率和DMT的产率，15 min后分别达到97%和95%左右。实现了 553 g PET h-1 (g ZnO)-1 的优异活性。此外，