Recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) into closed‐cell foams

Abstract

Abstract The increase of the elongational viscosity of recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is investigated with the aim of producing closed‐cell foams by means of a cost‐effective reactive extrusion technique. A recycled PET grade containing controlled contamination levels of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and poylethylene (PE) is selected, and compared with virgin bottle‐grade PET as a reference. Reactive processing with a tetrafunctional epoxy additive induces randomly branched molecules with a lower degree of branching in recycled PET than in virgin PET, as shown by a molecular structure analysis. The corresponding increase in elongational viscosity is related to foaming experiments performed using supercritical CO 2 in a pressurized vessel. Observations of foam microstructures reveal that modified virgin PET forms closed‐cell structures under a large variety of foaming conditions, as opposed to unmodified virgin and recycled PET, which collapse as a result of insufficient elongational resistance. Closed‐cell foams are also obtained using modified recycled PET, providing that the temperature at which the pressure is released is lowered to 260°. Recycling of PET into closed‐cell foams is thus achieved, although the processing window is slightly reduced compared to virgin PET.