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PET material has been widely used in the daily life due to its excellent properties

Yi-bo Chen,*,†,

Jiaqi Lei,*,†,

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a thermoplastic polymer resin of polyester family. PET material has excellent mechanical, optical and chemical properties and is widely used in daily life. PET can be divided into fiber grade PET chips and non-fiber grade PET chips. Fiber grade PET is used to manufacture polyester staple fiber and polyester filament. It is the raw material for polyester fiber enterprises to process fiber and related products. Non fiber polyester also has bottle, film and other uses, widely used in packaging industry, electronic appliances, medical and health care, construction, automobile and other fields, among which packaging is the largest non-fiber application market of polyester, and also the fastest growing field of PET. This section outlines the common applications of pet and the theories behind them.

1. Package Bottle （The most widespread application）

PET plastic bottle is widely used for packaging carbonated drinks, drinking water, fruit juice, beer, tea milk, etc. It is the most used beverage packaging today. (Fig.1)[1] [2] [3]

Fig.1 Application 1 package bottle

(A) water (B) carbonate beverages (C) fruit juice (D) milk (E) beer (F) cosmetics (G) edible oil (H) detergent

PET has incomparable properties and advantages in the field of packaging bottle：

Low density and light weight
PET material has excellent mechanical properties, high tensile strength and bending strength, and good compression resistance.
Good creep resistance, fatigue resistance and friction resistance, low abrasion and high hardness, with the largest toughness in thermoplastics
PET materials have excellent optical properties, high transparency, uv resistance and good gloss.
Good chemical resistance stability, low water absorption, resistance to weak acid and organic solvent.
Low environmental pollution, low energy consumption and recyclable
Gas and water vapor permeability is low, can not only excellent barrier gas, water, oil and odor, and can prevent the loss of carbon dioxide in soda, good sealing
Good heat resistance, can be used to pack many drinks need high temperature sterilization to fill
High ductility and easy to produce and shape.
Non-toxic, tasteless, good health and safety, can be directly used for food packaging.

Because of these excellent properties, PET materials have gradually replaced the traditional packaging materials and are regarded as the most promising packaging materials. Meanwhile, PET packaging is also the fastest growing area of PET (Fig.2)

Fig.2 U.S PET compounding market size

2. polyester fiber

PET material is also used in the field of clothing. PET fiber is also known as polyester fiber.(Fig.3) [4] [5]

Fig.3 Application 2 polyester clothing

(A) PET fiber (B) PET fabric (C) PET fabric clothing

PET material can be used as clothing fabric because it has some excellent properties:

Low density of PET material makes clothes lighter
PET has good tensile property, creep resistance and fatigue resistance, making the clothes resilient and not easy to be deformed.
PET materials have strong acid and alkali resistance
Polyester is resistant to sunlight and climate.
PET material has low air permeability, low moisture absorption, easy to clean and fast drying.
Polyester fiber is resistant to microorganisms, no mold, no moth.

The rapid development of petroleum industry, also for polyester fiber production to provide the more abundant and cheap raw material, combined with the chemical, mechanical, electronic control technology in recent years the development of technology, such as the raw material to produce, fiber forming and machining process gradually achieve short-range, continuous, high speed and automation, polyester fiber has become the fastest developing speed, the most productive varieties of synthetic fiber.

3. film

PET materials are also widely used in the production of thin films, PET films can be used as high-grade packaging materials for food, medicine, textiles, precision instruments, electronic components. (Fig.4) [6] [7]

Fig.4 Application 3 film

(A) PET protective film (B) Instrument panel cladding, have stainless steel surface effect (C) insulating film

Its nature advantage is also very obvious:

Excellent optical performance, high transparency, good gloss.
Good creep resistance, fatigue resistance and friction resistance, low abrasion and high hardness, the largest toughness in thermoplastics, stable size
Good electrical insulation, can be widely used in the field of electronics and electrical appliances.

4. development tendency

PET materials were originally used to make softer films, which in turn were used to make X-ray film and packaging films.
After a series of technological innovations, the mechanical and chemical properties of PET have been greatly improved. Therefore, PET is widely used in the production of packaging bottles and polyester, which is also the most important application of PET materials today.
Because of its excellent properties and huge market, PET material is also known as one of the top five engineering plastics.
The development trend of PET materials is to produce packaging materials with higher degradation and stronger strength, and then combine with other materials to produce engineering materials with special USES, such as being used as nano wires in the biological field and improving the properties of raw materials in the field of 3D printing.
It is believed that PET material will be more widely used in the new technology field.

PET（Polyethylene terephthalate）

PET（Polyethylene terephthalate）

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