Poly(neopentyl glycol 2,5-furandicarboxylate): A Promising Hard Segment for the Development of Bio-based Thermoplastic Poly(ether-ester) Elastomer with High Performance

Abstract

With a high melting temperature and good crystallization ability, poly(neopentyl glycol 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PNF), a polyester derived from bio-based 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and neopentyl glycol, has been proposed and proved to be a promising hard segment for the development of novel bio-based thermoplastic poly(ether-ester) elastomer (TPEE). The resulting TPEE, namely PNF–PTMG, has high performance comparable to the petroleum-based counterpart PBT–PTMG (i.e., Hytrel, Dupont). Among all of the existing polyesters derived from bio-based 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), PNF has perfectly balanced properties, namely, a high melting temperature of 200 °C and a good crystallization ability to easily grow medium to large-size crystalline spherulites. Characterizations based on dynamic mechanical analysis and small-angle X-ray scattering suggest that there are two domains in PNF–PTMG, the crystalline PNF and a mixture of amorphous PNF and PTMG. These two domains form microphase separation induced mainly...