Renewable-based poly((ether)ester)s from 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid

Abstract

Abstract Polymers based on the renewable monomer 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) have witnessing an incessant growth in recent years, essentially motivated by their unique features and the current concerns about sustainability and environmental issues. However, to date, research has been mainly focused on FDCA-polyesters synthesis, while synthetic routes to afford poly((ether)ester)s remained unexplored until the present study, despite their inherent value. Herein, fully renewable-based poly((ether)ester)s from 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and isosorbide were straightforward synthesised by polycondensation reactions. Interestingly, these materials showed better or comparable thermal properties (e.g. glass transition temperature) than their fossil based counterparts, which can be simply tuned by changing the chain length of PEG segments and also by incorporating (or not) rigid isosorbide moieties. The ensuing products were characterised in detail by means of ATR FTIR, 1H NMR, TGA and DSC.