Recycling of PET soft drink bottles involves heating with methanol and an acid catalyst to liberate ethylene glycol and dimethylterphthalate (methyl ester of pthalic acid). These can then be used as monomers to make new PET products. Write an equation for this recycling reaction.
Start with a word equation
PET + methanol -> ethylene glycol + dimethyl phthalate
Then convert to formulae
PET + CH3OH -> HOCH2CH2OH + CH3OCOPhCOOCH3
and I would put H+ over the arrow to show it is a catalyst
I can't draw a structure for PET or dimethyl phthalate here
For the structure of dimethyl phthalate see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_phthalate
The polymer (PET) structure is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate
The recycling reaction of PET soft drink bottles can be represented by the following equation:
PET + Methanol + Acid Catalyst → Ethylene Glycol + Dimethylterphthalate
The recycling reaction of PET soft drink bottles involves heating with methanol and an acid catalyst to liberate ethylene glycol and dimethylterphthalate. This is a depolymerization reaction that breaks down the PET polymer into its monomers. The equation for this recycling reaction is as follows:
PET (polyethylene terephthalate) + Methanol + Acid Catalyst → Ethylene Glycol + Dimethylterphthalate
The reaction can be represented symbolically as:
n(C10H8O4) + n(CH3OH) + H+ → n(C2H6O2) + n(C12H14O4)
Where:
PET = polyethylene terephthalate
C10H8O4 = molecular formula of PET
Methanol = CH3OH
C2H6O2 = ethylene glycol
Dimethylterphthalate = C12H14O4
H+ = acid catalyst
In this reaction, the PET polymer undergoes hydrolysis, breaking the ester bonds between the terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol units, resulting in the production of ethylene glycol and dimethylterphthalate. These monomers can then be purified and used as building blocks in the production of new PET products.