Influence of soft segment content and chain length on the physical properties of poly(ether ester) elastomers and fabrication of honeycomb pattern and electrospun fiber

Abstract

Different series of poly(ether ester) (PEE) thermoplastic elastomers were synthesized using dimethyl-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as hard segment, 1,4-butanediol as the chain extender, and three different soft segments of different molecular weights (MW), namely polycaprolactone diol (MW: 530 and 2000), poly(tetramethylene ether glycol) (MW: 1000 and 1800), and polycaprolactone-block-polytetrahydrofuran-block-polycaprolactone (MW: 2000). The composition of soft segment was changed from 30% to 50% with respect to the hard segment. The characteristic studies were focused to analyze the influence of the concentration and length of the soft segment content. In each series, 50:50 compositions of the hard and soft segments were found to show the best mechanical properties. In addition the physical properties of the elastomer were very sensitive to the type of soft segment. The elastomers prepared in this study were systematically characterized using various spectroscopic studies and thermal and mechanical analyses. As a means of discovering the feasibility of PEE elastomers as new functional materials honeycomb patterns and nanofibers have been fabricated by applying breath figures method and electrospinning, respectively, yielding uniform honeycomb structures and nanofibers of their diameter ranging from about 100 to 800nm depending on the type of elastomer and the electrical potential employed .