Transesterifications of poly(bisphenol A carbonate) with aromatic and aliphatic segments in ethylene terephthalate–caprolactone copolyester

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, transesterification of poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PC) with a ethylene terephthalate–caprolactone copolyester at a weight ratio 50/50 (TCL50) was investigated by infrared spectroscopy (IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H‐NMR), and a model compound. The IR and 1H‐NMR results showed that transesterification occurred between PC and ethylene terephthalate (ET) segments in TCL50 and resulted in the formation of bisphenol A–terephthalate ester units as in the annealed blend of PC with the PET homopolyester. By comparison with a model compound, the new signal at 2.55 ppm in the 1H‐NMR spectrum confirmed the appearance of bisphenol A–caprolactone ester units resulting from the exchange reaction of PC with caprolactone (CL) segments. The 1H‐NMR analysis of the transesterification rates revealed that the reactions of PC with aromatic and aliphatic segments in TCL50 proceeded in a random or free manner. In addition, we separately examined the interchange reaction between a PC and poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) homopolyester in an annealed blend. It was found that in the presence of a Ti compound catalyst the predominant reaction was a transesterification rather than a thermooxidative branching reaction. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 1558–1565, 2001