A novel one-step synthesis for carbon-based nanomaterials from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles waste

Abstract

Plastic water bottles are becoming a growing segment of the municipal solid waste stream in the world; some are recycled but many are left in landfill sites. Recycling PET bottles waste can positively impact the environment in several ways: for instance, reduced waste, resource conservation, energy conservation, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing the amount of pollution in air and water sources. The main novelty of the present work is based on the acquisition of high-value carbon-based nanomaterials from PET waste by a simple solvent-free chemical technique. Thus, the prepared materials are considered to be promising, cheap, eco-friendly materials that may find use in different applications.

Chemical Recycling of Consumer-Grade Black Plastic into Electrically Conductive Carbon Nanotubes

“…Typically, the growth of CNTs from plastics has been achieved using pyrolysis [8]. Polymers, such as polypropylene (PP) [9], polyethylene (PE) [10] and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) [11], are heated in a solid-gas fluidized bed reactor [12]. The resultant off-gas (carbon source) is traversed to a catalyst site to complete the reaction.…”

Green and Low-Cost Membrane Electrode Assembly for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: Effect of Double-Layer Electrodes and Gas Diffusion Layer

“…Plastic bottles waste as sources of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were used to prepare reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The PET bottle waste was ready to use as mentioned in a previous study (El Essawy et al, 2017). Two grams of waste were introduced into an enclosed autoclave container and placed inside the center of an electric furnace at 800 • C for 1 h. The resulting dark products were collected and crushed.…”

Current approaches to waste polymer utilization and minimization: a review

“…reported a cost‐efficient solvent‐free procedure to convert PET bottles into carbon nanomaterials through thermal dissociation inside a closed system under autogenic pressure in the presence of additives and/or catalyst, which acted as cluster nuclei for carbon nanomaterials like CNTs and fullerenes. This study was successful in the production and control of the different forms of micro‐structured carbon nanomaterials from PET waste through optimization of parameters with regard to amount of catalyst, additives and time . It is clear that the developed processes are limited to laboratory studies and more effort should be made to scale them up.…”

“…This study was successful in the production and control of the different forms of micro-structured carbon nanomaterials from PET waste through optimization of parameters with regard to amount of catalyst, additives and time. 103 It is clear that the developed processes are limited to laboratory studies and more effort should be made to scale them up. Main challenges encountered by researchers are reactor design and conversion and high operating temperatures, in spite of the sustainable course of waste plastic management.…”