Biocopolyesters of Poly(butylene succinate) Containing Long-Chain Biobased Glycol Synthesized with Heterogeneous Titanium Dioxide Catalyst

TY - JOUR

T1 - Biocopolyesters of Poly(butylene succinate) Containing Long-Chain Biobased Glycol Synthesized with Heterogeneous Titanium Dioxide Catalyst

AU - Stȩpień, Karolina

AU - Miles, Catherine

AU - McClain, Andrew

AU - Wiśniewska, Ewa

AU - Sobolewski, Peter

AU - Kohn, Joachim

AU - Puskas, Judit

AU - Wagner, H. Daniel

AU - El Fray, Miroslawa

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 American Chemical Society.

PY - 2019/6/17

Y1 - 2019/6/17

N2 - Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is a thermoplastic and biodegradable polyester characterized by high rigidity due to its high crystallinity. However, the use of long-chain biobased monomers to produce segmented copolymers is an effective strategy to tailor the properties of PBS, such as increasing flexibility. In this Article, a series of aliphatic biocopolyesters of poly(butylene succinate-dilinoleic succinate) (PBS-DLS) were successfully synthesized via a direct two-step polycondensation method using a semipilot scale reactor for melt polymerization and titanium dioxide/silicon dioxide coprecipitate catalyst (C-94), an alternative catalytic system. The change in catalyst led to a reduced reaction time and eliminated the distillation step required for the typical organometallic titanium catalyst, thus representing an improvement in energy efficiency. In this study, the thermal and mechanical properties were investigated and compared, focusing on the effect of varying the amount of biobased dilinoleic diol in the structure. With increasing amount of long-chain diol, a decrease in molecular weight, density, and melt flow index was observed. The semicrystalline nature of the copolymers was confirmed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) methods. Increasing the soft DLS segment content in the copolymer series resulted in an increase in the elastic behavior of the polymers. The broad range of crystallization temperatures and melt flow index values indicates that a polyester library with customizable properties that spans PBS applications has been successfully obtained.

AB - Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is a thermoplastic and biodegradable polyester characterized by high rigidity due to its high crystallinity. However, the use of long-chain biobased monomers to produce segmented copolymers is an effective strategy to tailor the properties of PBS, such as increasing flexibility. In this Article, a series of aliphatic biocopolyesters of poly(butylene succinate-dilinoleic succinate) (PBS-DLS) were successfully synthesized via a direct two-step polycondensation method using a semipilot scale reactor for melt polymerization and titanium dioxide/silicon dioxide coprecipitate catalyst (C-94), an alternative catalytic system. The change in catalyst led to a reduced reaction time and eliminated the distillation step required for the typical organometallic titanium catalyst, thus representing an improvement in energy efficiency. In this study, the thermal and mechanical properties were investigated and compared, focusing on the effect of varying the amount of biobased dilinoleic diol in the structure. With increasing amount of long-chain diol, a decrease in molecular weight, density, and melt flow index was observed. The semicrystalline nature of the copolymers was confirmed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) methods. Increasing the soft DLS segment content in the copolymer series resulted in an increase in the elastic behavior of the polymers. The broad range of crystallization temperatures and melt flow index values indicates that a polyester library with customizable properties that spans PBS applications has been successfully obtained.

KW - Mechanical tests

KW - Poly(butylene succinate)

KW - Polycondensation

KW - Thermal properties

KW - Titanium dioxide

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85067026961

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85067026961#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b01191

DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b01191

M3 - Article

SN - 2168-0485

VL - 7

SP - 10623

EP - 10632

JO - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering

JF - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering

IS - 12

ER -