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Nanoplásticos en Productos de Despolimerización por Hidrólisis de Poli(tereftalato de etileno) en Estado Sólido

Sierra F Yost¹, Peter M Guirguis¹, Patricia Pereira¹

¹Robert V. Waltemeyer Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA.

Macromolecular rapid communications

|February 6, 2026

Resumen

El reciclaje químico del poli(tereftalato de etileno) (PET) mediante hidrólisis puede generar involuntariamente nanoplásticos, especialmente a temperaturas más bajas (<180 °C). Este hallazgo pone de relieve los posibles desafíos en la gestión de residuos plásticos y los procesos de reciclaje químico.

Área de la Ciencia:

Ciencia de Materiales
Química Ambiental
Química de Polímeros

Sus antecedentes:

El reciclaje químico del poli(tereftalato de etileno) (PET) tiene como objetivo la circularidad mediante la despolimerización de residuos plásticos en monómeros.
Los esfuerzos para reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero impulsan temperaturas de reacción más bajas para la hidrólisis de PET.
Estudios recientes sugieren que la hidrólisis cerca del punto de ebullición del agua puede producir nanoplásticos.

Objetivo del estudio:

Investigar la formación de nanoplásticos durante la hidrólisis de PET a temperaturas inferiores a 180 °C.
Evaluar el impacto de la temperatura de hidrólisis en las características de los productos de despolimerización de PET.

Principales métodos:

Se realizó la hidrólisis de poli(tereftalato de etileno) (PET) a temperaturas inferiores a 180 °C.
Se utilizó la dispersión dinámica de luz (DLS) para determinar el tamaño de partícula.
Se empleó la calorimetría diferencial de barrido (DSC) para analizar las propiedades térmicas y la composición de los productos de hidrólisis.

Principales resultados:

Se detectaron nanoplásticos en productos de hidrólisis de PET a temperaturas de hasta 150 °C para múltiples fuentes de PET.
Los termogramas de calorimetría diferencial de barrido (DSC) mostraron evidencia de pequeños cristales de PET a temperaturas más bajas.
Las temperaturas de hidrólisis más altas resultaron en partículas más pequeñas, y la DSC indicó la formación de moléculas pequeñas y oligómeros.

Conclusiones:

La hidrólisis de PET por debajo de 180 °C puede conducir a la generación no intencionada de nanoplásticos.
Los esfuerzos para minimizar las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en el reciclaje químico pueden producir inadvertidamente nanoplásticos.
La presencia de nanoplásticos en los productos reciclados plantea desafíos para la diferenciación y el control de calidad en la gestión de residuos plásticos.

Palabras clave:

reciclaje químico microplástico nanopartículas

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