Saturday, May 26, 2012

Molecule of the day: terephthalic acid

The molecule of the day is terephthalic acid:



It's a precursor in making polyethylene terephthalate (PET).  It's in the news because of a new biobased (i.e., sustainable) route to producing p-xylene, which can then be converted to terephthalic acid: the currently used methods produce terephthalic acid from petrochemicals.