II.3 Report on Industrial Synthesis and
Depolymerization of Polyethyleneterephthalate (PET).
(Value 1 quiz grade due Tuesday November 1)
Write a 6 page report discussing the industrial synthesis of PET and
the process developed by Dupont to depolymerize (produce monomer) from recycled
PET including comments on the economic viability of this recycling effort.
Give the reaction mechanisms and discuss in detail how this reaction mechanism is
involved in the design of an industrial reactor. You
will probably need to go to the Chemistry Library (and possibly the Engineering
Library) and find books on polymer synthesis that emphasize industrial synthesis.
Try to find several books but do not check out all of the books that others will
need. To find these books look up key words such as polymer, synthesis,
industrial on the computer search.
After reading this report one should be able to basically build a crude
industrial reactor for PET synthesis and for PET depolymerization so the intent is not a historical
overview but a technical description with connection to the reaction mechanism.