Pyrolysis of polyethylene terephthalate and polystyrene for the synthesis of carbon nanostructures: a bibliometric review

This article presents a bibliometric review of the pyrolysis process of two types of polymers: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polystyrene (PS), to identify the necessary conditions to optimize the pyrolysis process, guaranteeing the majority production of the gaseous product with the aim of carrying out a second process, the growth of carbon nanostructures. Gaseous precursors such as methane, acetylene, and ethylene are essential hydrocarbons for the growth of said nanostructures, of which a variety of single-walled, double-walled, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs, DWCNTs, and MWCNTs) stand out according to the literature and carbon nanofibers (CNFs). In this work, an analysis of the most relevant conditions is carried out to optimize the polymer pyrolysis process, that is, to reduce the temperature and reaction times to improve the composition of the products obtained from the pyrolytic process. Finally, the most relevant reports of the pyrolysis of the polymers exposed in the literature are disclosed.