Enzymatic degradation of PET plastic

Abstract

Previous work has shown that the degradation of plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using commercial grade enzymes is possible and highly effective in lab settings. However, the environmental factors controlling enzymatic plastic degradation are not well studied. In this study, a commercial hydrolytic enzyme was used to study the effect of incubation temperature, exposure to freeze-thaw cycles and extreme temperatures on the degradability of laboratory-grade PET. In addition, we also assessed the degradability of consumer-grade PET, sourced from plastic bottles, for comparison to the laboratory-grade PET. In addition to measuring degradation rates, we also looked at how both the various treatments/pre-treatments and hydrolytic degradation modified the PET’s physical and chemical properties using: fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile strength measurements.