Flame retardancy of recycled PET foam

Abstract

Although significant marketing efforts have been made in recent years to reduce polymer use, the number of plastic bottles being discarded is increasing worldwide. The global environmental-socio-economic problem posed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles can only be solved by expanding large-scale recycling opportunities, while reducing the use of pure raw materials. In this article on the large quantities product of PET was upcycled with chemical foaming. During the experiments 2 m% chain extender and 4 m% chemical blowing agent and different amount of brominated flame retardant was used. The invested materials were examined with standard mechanical tests, scanning electron microscopy and UL-94 standard flammability test. After the investigation it was found that the crystallized blue PET bottle re-granulate can be used forming a flame retardant closed cell foam structure.