Application of DSC and ATR-IR to the textile waste stream as an input for pet recycling

Description

In 2020, a total of 103 million metric tons of fiber material was used for the creation of textile materials, while only 13% of clothing materials are recycled and less than 1% re-enter the closed loop [1, 2]. One sub-fraction with a market share of 15.5 billion USD are polyester-cotton blends (“poly cotton”). Since they pose a problem for traditional mechanical recycling, a common approach is the dissolution or depolymerization of one component. One method for working up poly-cotton materials is the enzymatic degradation of the cotton, which allows reclamation of the cotton without using organic solvents while providing glucose solution as an added value stream. Due to product inhibition, the solid load of the reaction is limited by the glucose concentration of the solution. Since this is based on the cotton content of the substrate, for batch reactions, the solid load of the reaction is limited by the cotton content of the textile substrate. Therefore, reliable methods for determining the makeup of incoming textile waste streams (both post-industrial and post-consumer) were investigated using attenuated total reflection Fourier transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and dynamic scanning calorimetry (DSC). ATR-FTIR and DSC are tools commonly used in the characterization process of polymers, with the latter having already successfully applies to determine the elastane content of textiles [4].

Period	04 Sept 2023
Event title	Polymer Meeting 15” (PM15)
Event type	Conference
Location	SlovakiaShow on map