A New Sustainable PPT Coating Based on Recycled PET to Improve the Durability of Hydraulic Concrete.

A new, sustainable polypropylene terephthalate (PPT) coating was synthesized from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and applied onto a hydraulic concrete substrate to improve its durability. For the first step, PET bottle wastes were ground and depolymerized by glycolysis using propylene glycol (PG) in a vessel-type reactor (20-180 °C) to synthesize bis(2-hydroxypropyl)-terephthalate (BHPT), which was applied as a coating to one to three layers of hydraulic concrete substrate using the brushing technique and polymerized (150 °C for 15 h) to obtain PPT. PET, BHPT, and PPT were characterized by FT-IR, PET, and PPT using TGA, and the PPT coatings by SEM (thickness), ASTM-D3359-17 (adhesion), and water contact angle (wettability). The durability of hydraulic concrete coated with PPT was studied using resist chloride ion penetration (ASTM-C1202-17), carbonation depth at 28 days (RILEM-CPC-18), and the absorption water ratio (ASTM-C1585-20). The results demonstrated that the BHPT and PPT were synthetized (FT-IR), and PPT had a similar thermal behavior to PET (TGA); the PPT coatings had good adhesion to the substrate, with thicknesses of micrometric units. PPT coatings presented hydrophilic hydrophilic behavior like PET coatings, and the durability of hydraulic concrete coated with PPT (2-3 layers) improved (migration of chloride ions decreased, carbonation depth was negligible, and the absorption water ratio decreased).