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Vitrimerization Routes for Waste PET Upcycling

Issue 1, Volume 4
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Vitrimerization Routes for Waste PET Upcycling

Shuheng Qiu Na Lin Ruixia Duan * Wentao Liu * Suqin He Hao Liu Miaoming Huang Wanlin Xu Chengshen Zhu

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School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
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Received: 04 September 2026 Revised: 17 September 2026 Accepted: 28 October 2026 Published: 13 November 2026

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© 2026 The authors. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Green Chem. Technol. 2027, 4(1), 10036; DOI: 10.70322/gct.2026.10036
ABSTRACT: The accumulation of massive post-consumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) waste poses severe ecological hazards. Conventional mechanical recycling induces irreversible chain scission and severe property depreciation, while chemical depolymerization consumes excessive energy and toxic solvents, creating a performance-cost downcycling bottleneck limiting high-value PET reuse. This comprehensive critical review highlights vitrimer chemistry based on associative dynamic exchange as a transformative upcycling solution. The field is organized around two fabrication routes—depolymerization-reconstruction and in-situ/direct network construction while preserving the PET backbone—together with a cross-cutting transesterification catalytic dimension covering externally catalyzed, self-catalytic, and metal-free, no-added-catalyst (including residual-catalyst-assisted), and fully catalyst-free designs. Solvolysis-derived oligomers afford vitrimers with tunable glass transition temperature (Tg) (38~240 °C) and tensile strength up to 117 MPa; solvent-free extrusion fits continuous industrial lines, and metal-free designs may reduce heavy-metal contamination. Several optimized systems retain over 80% mechanical performance after cyclic reprocessing, although significant variations exist; for example, the bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET)/pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA)/trimethylolpropane (TMP) vitrimer decreases from approximately 30 MPa to 16 MPa after two compression-molding cycles. These technologies show potential for closed-loop recycling and reprocessability, may reduce virgin resin demand, and may reduce carbon footprints, pending full life-cycle assessment. Major industrial barriers include insufficient creep resistance, incomplete monomer recovery, and non-uniform testing standards. This work delivers integrated theoretical and engineering guidance for scalable PET vitrimer circular-material development.
Keywords: Vitrimer; Post-consumer PET waste; Dynamic covalent network; Circular upcycling; Reactive extrusion
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