The aim of this work is to determine the activation energy for the thermal decomposition of poly(ethylene terephthalate)—PET, in the presence of a MCM-41 mesoporous catalyst. This material was synthesized by the hydrothermal method, using cetyltrimethylammonium as template. The PET sample has been submitted to thermal degradation alone and in presence of MCM-41 catalyst at a concentration of 25% in mass (MCM-41/PET). The degradation process was evaluated by thermogravimetry, at temperature range from 350 to 500 °C, under nitrogen atmosphere, with heating rates of 5, 10 and 25 °C min−1. From TG, the activation energy, determined using the Flynn–Wall kinetic method, decreased from 231 kJ mol−1, for the pure polymer (PET), to 195 kJ mol−1, in the presence of the material (MCM-41/PET), showing the catalyst efficiency for the polymer decomposition process.
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