1.

0 Introduction

WHAT IS POLYMER?.what is PET? The word Polymer comes from the Greek "poly"
meaning many ,and"meros",parts or units.Polymers are macromolecules (large molecules of
higher molecularweight) formed by there peated linking of large number of small molecules
called monomers. A polymer is a chain like molecule made up of smaller
units"monomers“.The"monomers",made up of atoms,bond together covalently to form a
polymer that usually has a carbon backbone. polyethylene terephthalate(PET) .the
polymerization (Bulk polycondensation).The monomers dimethyl terephthalate or
terephthalic acid,ethylene.
PET is a thermoplastics polymer resin from the polyester family.It is a polymerthat is formed
by combining modified ethylene glycol and purified terephthalic acid or dimethyl
terephthalate.Although its name contain polyethylene

Plastic materials have played based on basic chemical elements such as

carbon,oxygen,nitrogen,chlorine and sulphur.These elements are extracted from
air,water,gas,oil and even from living plants.It was man’s inspiration to take these elements
and combine them through various chemical reaction in an almost unending series of
combinations to produce the variety of polymers known today as plastic.Ist is possible to
create different polymer from different combinations of elements and create almost any
property desired for an product but some plastics with significant property improvement over
existing materials. (Campo)

 Cheap to make
 Many uses because of their different properties.
 Provide jobs in firms which make the polymer and the product.
 Some polymers can be recycled, melted down and made into something else which
saves valuable natural resources.

 If polymers are used instead of wood, fewer trees will have to be cut down.
 People do not like to live near polymer-producing industrial works.
 Some people think plastic products look cheap compared with natural materials.
 Made from oil, a non-renewable resource.
 Most plastics are not biodegradable so there is a problem of how to get rid of them.
 Landfill sites are ugly.
 Give off toxic fumes when they burn.
 Sorting types of polymers for recycling can be expensive.
2.0 Structure of polyethylene terephthalate
 3.0 PROCESSING

The reaction of monoethylene glycol and purified terephthalic acid or dimethyl terephthalate . The
main process steps are raw material preparation, esterification/transesterification, pre -
polycondensation and polycondensation.

The purified terephthalic acid is mixed with the monoethylene glycol and catalyst solution in a
paste and fed into the esterification system. The esterification takes place under atmospheric
pressure by splitting off the water.

When dimethyl terephthalate is used, the dimethyl terephthalate melt and catalyst are pumped
with monoethylene into the transesterification system, where the reaction takes place under
atmospheric pressure by splitting off the methanol. The materials split off are rectified and
recovered.

The product from the esterification/transesterification step is then sent to the pre -polycondensation
unit where the reaction takes place under a vacuum. The pre-polycondensation product is fed to the
final polycondensation reactor which operates under increased temperature and vacuum. The
polyester melt is processed either into fibres/filaments or sent to the solid state polycondensation
(SSP) unit to make bottle grade chips.
4.0 APPLICATION OF PET

PET is widely used in synthetic fiber designed to stimulate wool cotton or rayon.They have good
wash-and-wear properties and resistance to wrinkling.Next,crystalline PET has good resistance to
water and dilute mineral acids but degraded by concentrated nitric and sulphuric acid.It is soluble
at normal temperatures only in proton donors which are capable of interaction with the ester
group,such as chlorinated and fluorinated acetic acids,phenol,and anhydrous hydrofluoric acid.

Other than that,PET is also used in film form (Melinex,Mylar)and as a molding material.The
manufacture of PET filmclosely resembles the manufacture of fiber.The film is produced by
quenching extruded sheet approximately threefoldin the axial and transverse directions at 80-
100ᵒC.To stabilize the biaxially oriented film,it is annealed under restraint at 180-210ᵒC.This
operation increases the crystallinity of PET film and reduces its tendency to shrink pn heating.The
strength of PET of PET in its oriented from is outstanding.

The principal uses of biaxially oriented PET film are in capacitor, in slot liners for motors,and
formagnetic tape.Although apolar polymer,its electrical insulation properties at room
temperature are good(even at high frequencies)because at room temperature,which is well below
Tg
5.0 REFERENCE
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