ObstractIn the present work, the depolymerization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was performed by the method of glycolysis with ethylene glycol. The process was carried out using a factorial design in the Box-Behnken optimization model, using a response surface methodology (RSM) in which three factors (time, temperature and mass ratio of ethylene glycol) were studied in three levels of variation (-1, 0, +1) with two replicates of the center point, totalizing 15 experiments for which the yield of bis (2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) monomers formed in the process was chosen as response. In parallel, the Arrhenius kinetic test was used to determine the apparent activation energy (Ea) for the 1-butyl-3-methylimidazole trichlorozincate ([Bmin]ZnCl 3 ) -catalyst used in the depolymerization process. The products of glycolysis obtained were characterized by spectroscopic techniques (FTIR), ( 1 H and 13 C NMR), thermal analyses (TGA) and (DSC) and Mass Spectrometry LC-MS/MS hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap.
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