RT journal article
T1 One-pot depolymerization-repolymerization of PET waste into sustainable photocurable liquid copolyesters for high-performance additive manufacturing
A1 Carmenini, Rosario
A1 Sanz de León, Alberto Darío
A1 Benelli, Tiziana
A1 Giorgini, Loris
A1 Comes Franchini, Mauro
A1 Molina Rubio, Sergio Ignacio
A1 Maturi, Mirko
A2 Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Inorgánica
K1 poly(ethylene terephthalate)
K1 PET
K1 Post-consumer
K1 Recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate)
K1 Repolymerization
AB In this work, we present a sustainable one-pot two-step approach for the depolymerization and repolymerization of post-consumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into high-performance photocurable liquid polyesters suitable for vat photopolymerization (VP) additive manufacturing. By coupling PET waste alcoholysis with biobased diols and polytransesterification with dimethyl itaconate (DMI), novel poly(diyl itaconate-co-terephthalate) copolyesters were synthesized under solvent-free conditions using dibutyltin dilaurate as a catalyst. The resulting polyesters were formulated with reactive diluents and photoinitiators to yield printable resins with up to 22 wt% recycled PET. Mechanical and thermal analysis of 3D printed parts revealed that the incorporation of PET-derived aromatic structures enhanced stiffness, strength, and thermal stability, while the presence of itaconate units enabled high crosslink density and tunable flexibility. The optimal formulation, containing 75 wt% photocurable polyester containing 15.3% recycled PET, achieved a Young’s modulus of 1.4 GPa and flexural strength of 54 MPa, representing the highest performance reported to date for itaconic acid-based 3D printable resins. This integrated approach represents a significant green advance by combining solvent-free processing, renewable feedstocks, and post-consumer PET valorisation. The sustainability of the materials was further validated using the Sustainable Formulation Score (SFS), placing the top-performing resins in the top 10% of benchmarked systems.
PB Royal Society of Chemistry
SN 1463-9270
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39384
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39384
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-nov-2026