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Updated: Oct 28, 2025

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Published on: November 30, 2020
Progress in the catalytic glycolysis of polyethylene terephthalate
Jiayu Xin1, Qi Zhang2, Junjie Huang3
1Beijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process, CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China; School of Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China; Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China; Sino Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Abstract:
This paper briefly reviews the development history of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and the recycling of PET. As one of the most promising way to degrade PET into oligomers and monomers that can be used for the production of high-quality PET, catalytic glycolysis is highlighted in this review. The developments on metal salt, metal oxide and ionic solvent catalysts for glycolysis of PET are systematically summarized, besides, the proposed catalytic mechanisms of ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are presented. The metallic catalysts show high catalytic performance but causing serious environmental pollution and high waste treatment costs, thereby it is proposed that metal-free catalysts, especially ILs and DESs can be the "greener" alternatives to address the PET waste problem. Additionally, the studies related to the glycolysis kinetics are discussed in this review, showing the results that PET glycolysis process consists of heterogeneous and homogeneous depolymerization, and different models should be used to investigate different depolymerization stages in order to obtain a more realistic picture.
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