Abstracto

A brief guidance on Polyethylene terephthalate.

Alex T Archibald*, David D Parrish

Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PETP), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods, and thermoforming for manufacturing, and in combination with glass fibre for engineering resins.It may also be referred to by the brand names Terylene in the UK, Lavsan in Russia and the former Soviet Union, and Dacron in the US.The majority of the world's PET production is for synthetic fibres (in excess of 60%), with bottle production accounting for about 30% of global demand. In the context of textile applications, PET is referred to by its common name, polyester, whereas the acronym PET is generally used in relation to packaging. Polyester makes up about 18% of world polymer production and is the fourth-most-produced polymer after Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). PET consists of polymerized units of the monomer ethylene terephthalate, with repeating (C10H8O4) units. PET is commonly recycled, and has the digit 1 as its Resin Identification Code (RIC).