Frontiers in Chemistry (Jun 2022)

Relaxation Dynamics of Biomass-Derived Copolymers With Promising Gas-Barrier Properties

  • Alejandro Sanz,
  • Amelia Linares,
  • Mari Cruz García-Gutiérrez,
  • Aurora Nogales,
  • Sandra Paszkiewicz,
  • Agata Zubkiewicz,
  • Anna Szymczyk,
  • Tiberio A. Ezquerra

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.921787
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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This article presents an experimental study on the relaxation dynamics of a series of random copolymers based on bio-friendly comonomers with interesting gas barrier properties. We analyze the relaxation response in the glassy and ultraviscous regime of poly (trimethylene furanoate/sebacate) random copolymers via dielectric spectroscopy. We report lower values of dynamic fragility [a dimensionless index introduced in 1985 (Angell, Relaxations in Complex Systems, 1985)] in comparison to popular polyesters widely used in industry, such as poly (ethylene terephthalate), suggesting that the amorphous phase of these furanoate-based polyesters adopt an efficient chain packing. This is consistent with their low permeability to gases. We also discuss on different equations (phenomenological and theory-based approaches) for fitting the temperature-evolution of the alpha relaxation time.

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