Cooperativity and fragility in furan-based polyesters with different glycolic subunits as compared to their terephthalic counterparts

Abstract

This works aims to investigate the effect of the molecular groups found in polyester backbones (type of ring in the acidic subunit and length of the glycolic subunit) on the molecular dynamics. The investigation is done on three furan-based polyesters (PEF, PPF and PBF) as compared to their terephthalic counterparts (PET, PTT, and PBT) after full quenching from the molten state. The segmental molecular dynamics is investigated with MT-DSC, FSC and DRS. It is shown that the cooperativity decreases as the length of the glycolic subunit increases in both furan-based and terephthalic polyesters. No direct correlation between the fragility index and the cooperativity is observed in furan-based polyesters containing glycolic subunits of different lengths. The differences in the isochoric fragilities obtained for the furan-based polyesters and their terephthalic counterparts has been assumed to result from the combination of backbone flexibility and packing efficiency of the macromolecular chains in the amorphous phase.