A green cascade polymerization method for the facile synthesis of sustainable poly(butylene-co-decylene terephthalate) copolymers

Abstract

Typical semicrystalline aromatic polyesters are synthesized via the condensation polymerization of aromatic diacids with excess diols in vacuum. We demonstrate here a green cascade polycondensation-coupling ring-opening polymerization (PROP) method for the facile incorporation of diols into polyesters in N2, utilizing cyclic oligo(butylene terephthlate)s as monomer and bio-based 1,10-decanediol as initiator. Poly(butylene-co-decylene terephthalate) (PBDT) copolyesters are synthesized with high atom economy (87–99%), and their structures are characterized and confirmed by the 1H quantitative NMR, two dimensional 1H–1H gCOSY and DOSY NMR spectra. Property investigations reveal that with the increment of decanediol content, the glass transition temperature, melting temperature, storage modulus and Young's modulus for PBDT copolyesters decrease, while the toughness increases, respectively. Our results provide a high atom economy PROP method for the synthesis of sustainable PBDT copolyesters, which have lower processing temperatures and improved ductility than poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) homopolymers, and could draw attentions for further investigations on the green synthesis of other copolyesters.