terephthalate

From terephthalic acid +‎ -ate (“salt or ester”).

terephthalate (plural terephthalates)

1. (organic chemistry) Any salt or ester of terephthalic acid.
   • 2022 April 3, Sabrina Imbler, “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 5 April 2022:

     For eons, the debris has contained the same things — flecks from plant and animal carcasses, feces, mucus, dust, microbes, viruses — and transported the ocean’s carbon to be stored on the seafloor. Increasingly, however, marine snowfall is being infiltrated by microplastics: fibers and fragments of polyamide, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. And this fauxfall appears to be altering our planet’s ancient cooling process.