Aromatic acid monomers, polymers, products and processes for their manufacture

A naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid monomer product, said product comprising at least 90 mole percent of the acid monomer and one or more process-related materials selected from the group consisting of between 50 and 5,000 ppm of monofunctional materials, between 50 and 10,000 ppm of trifunctional materials, between 50 and 500 ppm of color bodies, and between 50 and 10,000 ppm of metals, and combinations thereof, and said monomer product being suitable for the manufacture of polyesters.

A process for producing a naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid monomer product, said process comprising the steps of:

• oxidizing a naphthalenic feedstock to produce a crude napthalenic dicarboxylic acid comprising a naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid useful as a monomer in a polymerization reaction and process-related materials formed during the manufacture of the crude naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid;
• slurrying the crude naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid in a solvent to remove a portion of process-related materials from the crude naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid;
• recovering solid monomer from the slurry to produce a naphthalenic dicarboxylic acid monomer product comprising at least 93 mole percent of the acid monomer and one or more process-related materials selected from the group consisting of between 50 and 5,000 ppm of monofunctional materials, between 50 and 10,000 ppm of trifunctional materials, between 50 and 500 ppm of color bodies, and between 50 and 10,000 ppm of metals.