One-pot synthesis of isosorbide-based copolycarbonate with good flexibility and tunable thermal property

Abstract

In this article, we reported a new strategy to synthesize of isosorbide-based copolycarbonates with good flexibility and tunable thermal property via one-pot direct melt polycondensation of isosorbide (ISB), dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and 1,4-benzenedimethanol (BDM). The effect of different feed ratio on the chemical structure, molecular weight, thermal and mechanical property of copolycarbonates was in-depth studied. A series of metal ion-containing compounds as catalysts were used, and the copolycarbonates was synthesized with weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 80,300 and dispersity index below 1.78 by sodium tert-butoxide catalyst, and the reaction time was shorted to only 3.5 h with the ISB conversion up to 99.0%. Meanwhile, the Tg values realized controllable and tunable from 69 to 164 °C by varying the ratio of two diol monomers, and the influence of the structure of carbonyl carbon in repeating units of copolycarbonates on the thermal properties were demonstrated. Moreover, the results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) implied that the flexibility of copolycarbonates was increased with increasing BDM content, and the results of scratch resistance and melting index of the copolycarbonates provided enormous prospect for the industrial application.