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.