Abstract
Using 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, ethylene glycol, and poly(ethylene glycol) as raw materials and ethylene glycol antimony as a catalyst, poly(ethylene furandicarboxylate) (PEF) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) copolymers (PEGFs) were synthesized by transesterification by changing the molecular weight of PEG (from 600 to 10,000 g/mol) and the PEG content (from 10 to 60 wt %). The thermal, hydrophilic, degradation, and spinnility characteristics of these copolymers were then investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that PEGF is thermally stable at 62 °C, much lower than the temperature for PEF. The intrinsic viscosity of the obtained copolyester was between 0.67 and 0.99 dL/g, which is higher than the viscosity value of PEF. The contact angle experiment shows that the hydrophilicity of PEGFs is improved (the surface contact angle is reduced from 91.9 to 63.3°), which gives PEGFs a certain degradability, and the maximum mass loss can reach approximately 15%. Melt spinning experiments show that the PEGF polymer has poor spinnability, but the mechanical properties of the polymer monofilament are better.
Highlights
Plastics synthesized from petroleum are common in human life, and white pollution has attracted increasing attention
People have begun to focus on green polymer materials, and industry and academia have increased efforts on the research and development of polymer materials based on renewable resources [1,2,3,4,5]
Due to the lack of a rigid aromatic ring structure in the molecular structure, their mechanical properties and heat resistance are significantly lower than those of petroleum-based polymers such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), poly(carbonate) (PC), and aromatic nylon (PA), which severely restricts the range of applications of aliphatic polymers
Summary
Plastics synthesized from petroleum are common in human life, and white pollution has attracted increasing attention. Polymers 2019, 11, 2105 a rigid ring structure into the molecular structures of bio-based polymer materials to increase their strength through synthetic techniques. 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is a diacid based on renewable resources whose structure is similar to that of terephthalic acid. FDCA is considered a substitute for terephthalic acid [16,17,18] Related polyesters, such as poly(ethylene furandicarboxylate) (PEF) [13,16], poly(propylene furandicarboxylate) (PPF) [19,20,21], and poly(butanediol furandicarboxylate) (PBF) [22,23,24], have been extensively studied. The degradation behavior of PEGFs was determined by analyzing the weight loss and inherent viscosity with degradation time when exposed to a phosphate buffered solution
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