Dynamic mechanical and melt rheological properties of sulfonated poly(butylene succinate) ionomers

Abstract

A series of poly(butylene succinate) ionomers (PBSi) containing 5-sodium sulfoisophthalate units were prepared by bulk polymerization of succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol in the presence of dimethyl 5-sulfoisophthalate sodium salt (DMSI) up to 5 mol% of diacid monomer. Conspicuous variation of the storage modulus for PBSi was observed, depending on the content of DMSI. The increasing rate of cluster T g was lower compared to those of amorphous polymer-based ionomers. These results were probably due to the lower clustering ability of semi-crystalline PBSi as compared with amorphous-based ionomers. Non-contact atomic force microscopy confirmed that the size of PBSi-3 clusters was about 40∼50 nm, demonstrating that the clusters were aggregated. Melt rheological analysis was carried out to investigate the effects of ionic groups on the rheological properties as a function of temperature or shear force in the molten state. The melt viscosities of PBSi showed higher values than the parent PBS up to about 190 °C, while with further increasing temperature a falling inflection region of melt viscosity was observed. It was suggested that the relaxation of PBSi chains was due to the thermal dissociation of ionic aggregates.