• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.124-133
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• 2002

Waste PBT powder was depolymerized by saponification under the mild temperature conditions($80{\sim}110^{\circ}C$) and atmospheric pressure. In depolymerization of PBT, sodium hydroxide was more effective than potassium hydroxide. The depolymerization increased with increasing reaction temperature and decreasing particle size. The reaction kinetics of depolymerization could be expressed by the shrinking unreacted core model without product layer, in which the surface reaction was a rate determining step. The activation energy was 98.1 KJ/mol. The recovery ratio of the TPA obtained from the depolymerized PBT particles of 85.1 and $105{\mu}m$ for 6 hours was about 95%.