Abstract
Cyclic butylene furandicarboxylate (c(BF)n) and butylene isophthalate (c(BI)n) oligomers obtained by high dilution condensation reaction were polymerized in bulk at 200 °C with Sn(Oct)2 catalyst via ring opening polymerization to give homopolyesters and copolyesters (coPBFxIy) with weight average molar masses in the 60,000–70,000 g·mol−1 range and dispersities between 1.3 and 1.9. The composition of the copolyesters as determined by NMR was practically the same as that of the feed, and they all showed an almost random microstructure. The copolyesters were thermally stable up to 300 °C and crystalline for all compositions, and have Tg in the 40–20 °C range with values decreasing almost linearly with their content in isophthalate units in the copolyester. Both melting temperature and enthalpy of the copolyesters decreased as the content in butylene isophthalate units increased up to a composition 30/70 (BF/BI), at which the triclinic crystal phase made exclusively of butylene furanoate units changed to the crystal structure of PBI. The partial replacement of furanoate by isophthalate units decreased substantially the crystallizability of PBF.
Highlights
Due to popular awareness of sustainability, polymers obtained from renewable sources have been developed in the last decade, with the purpose of replacing those obtained from fossil resources [1,2,3,4,5].One renewable monomer that has attracted much attention is 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), an aromatic building block obtained from C5 and C6 sugars, that is able to replace terephthalic acid, a petrochemical compound widely used for the preparation of aromatic polyesters such as PET or PBT [6,7,8]
poly(butylene furanoate) (PBF) is a semicrystalline polymer with a melting temperature of 172 ◦ C and a glass transition temperature of 39 ◦ C [9]
Figure1.1.InIn a first step, cyclic oligomers obtained by high dilution condensation (HDC)
Summary
Due to popular awareness of sustainability, polymers obtained from renewable sources have been developed in the last decade, with the purpose of replacing those obtained from fossil resources [1,2,3,4,5].One renewable monomer that has attracted much attention is 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), an aromatic building block obtained from C5 and C6 sugars, that is able to replace terephthalic acid, a petrochemical compound widely used for the preparation of aromatic polyesters such as PET or PBT [6,7,8]. Poly(butylene furanoate) (PBF) has been much less studied; as such, the knowledge available on this polyester is relatively scarce. PBF is a semicrystalline polymer with a melting temperature of 172 ◦ C and a glass transition temperature of 39 ◦ C [9]. As with PBT, the presence of the butylene segment in the repeating unit of PBF confers to this polymer a strong propensity for rapid crystallization, which is inconvenient for some injection molding processes due to the excessive mold shrinkage. Copolymerization has been applied to various technical polyesters in order to tune their thermal properties, such as crystallizability, melting or glass transition temperatures [10].
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