Return to search

Studies of poly(ethylene succinate) and its copolyesters with poly(trimethylene succinate)

Poly(ethylene succinate) (PES), poly(trimethylene succinate) (PTS) and their copolyesters with various compositions were synthesized through a direct polycondensation reaction with titanium tetraisopropoxide used as the catalyst. Results obtained from intrinsic viscosity and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) studies have significantly contributed to the preparation of polyesters with high molecular weight. Compositions and sequence distributions of the synthesized copolyesters were determined by analyzing the spectra of 1H NMR and 13C NMR. According to those results, the sequence distributions of ethylene succinate (ES) units and trimethylene succinate (TS) units were found to be random. Thermal properties were then characterized using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). All copolymers exhibited a single glass transition temperature (Tg). These polyesters did not significantly differ in thermal stability. Next, thermal stability was estimated using polarized light microscopy (PLM). Isothermal growth rates for polyesters were observed after pre-melting at various temperatures. The thermal degradation temperature (Td) was estimated, at which the growth rate for polyesters increased abruptly. The Td value of PES and PETSA 95/05 was found to be 213 and 200 ¢XC, respectively, which was 35−45 ¢XC lower than that determined by TGA.
Wide-angle X-ray diffractograms (WAXDs) were obtained for polyesters that were crystallized isothermally at a temperature 5−10 ¢XC below their melting temperatures. Only the crystal form of PES was appeared in the diffractograms of PES-rich copolyesters. The TS units in polyesters may be excluded and located in the amorphous part of polyesters. WAXD results indicate that incorporating TS units into PES could significantly inhibit the crystallization behavior of the latter. Additionally, dynamic mechanical properties of moldable polyesters were investigated using a Rheometer operated at 1 Hz. Below Tg, incorporating TS units into PES led to a decline in the storage modulus, while above Tg, the effect of crystallinity on the storage modulus could be found.
The sphreulite growth rates for crystallizable polyesters were measured by PLM. The growth rate of polyesters decreased with an increasing moiety of TS units. The regime II¡÷III transition of PES was estimated to occur at ca. 71 ¢XC, which is extremely close to values in the literature. The regime transition of PETSA95/05 and PETSA 80/20 was found to be 65.0 ¢XC and 51.4 ¢XC, respectively. A dynamic crystallization experiment was performed by PLM and compared with time consuming isothermal experiments. Above data closely corresponded to those data points determined in the isothermal experiments. Results of the regime analysis for the continuous data of polyesters closely resembled those of isothermal experiments.
The maximum growth rate was formulated in Arrhenius and WLF expressions for the molecular transport term. A master curve of the crystal growth rate for PES was constructed based on the continuous data of PES. Plotting the reduced growth rates after normalization against the reduced temperatures revealed a universal master curve for PES and two PES-rich copolyesters. Finally, the lateral surface free energy, fold surface free energy and work for chain folding of polyesters were evaluated based on kinetic analysis. According to those results, the works for chain folding decreased with an increasing moiety of TS units.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0901109-163733
Date01 September 2009
CreatorsTsai, Chia-jung
ContributorsChi Wang, T. M. Wu, M. Chen, S. J. Bai, J. L. Hong, T. W. Shyr
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0901109-163733
Rightsoff_campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive

Page generated in 0.002 seconds