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PoisonCupcake
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Homework Statement
Hi, I recently did a lab where PET plastic was depolymerized into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. I was wondering how to figure out the moles of terephthalic acid (in mol) that was reacted. I'm not really sure how to calculate this since terephthalic acid isn't a reactant itself and is just mostly present in the form of a copolymer.
PET reacted = 2.482g or 0.01291605 mol
Mass of the copolymer unit = 192.164 g/mol
Mass of terephthalic acid = 166.128 g/mol
Mass of ethylene glycol = 62.068 g/mol
The Attempt at a Solution
If terephathalic acid was a reactant I would think it would mean that since 0.01291605 mol of PET reacted, 0.01291605 mol of terephathalic acid reacted, but don't know if this is correct.
Thanks!