Abstract:
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most used thermoplastics worldwide, mainly in the manufacture of textile fibers and packaging produced by injection-blowing. Various solutions and products have been developed in order to encourage recycling and reuse of this material. One of these products is PET wool, manufactured from the recycling of PET bottles, and used in the construction industry for acoustic and thermal insulation. However, this material has high flammability when compared to glass wool or mineral wool, for example. This study aims to investigate the influence, on the mechanical and thermal behavior, of the addition of some flame retardants, incorporated during the PET processing. For this purpose, tensile tests, Shore D hardness test, thermogravimetry (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and fractography were performed. The results obtained showed a great fragility of the material due to the presence of flame retardants. Thus, it is suggested the incorporation of flame retardants in PET wool by spraying, which is not as effective as incorporation in the extrusion, but the material does not become brittle.