"Synthesis and properties of poly(butylene succinate) based copolymers and multi-block copolymers"

Abstract

Polybutylene succinate (PBS) and a series of multi-block hydroxyl-terminated diol copolymers were synthesized by a "one-step"method with succinic anhydride (SAA) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) as monomers, and terminal hydroxy diols as copolymer monomer. The condensation product of phenolphthalein and SAA was used to participate in the copolymerization of SAA and BDO, and biodegradable triblock polyester thermoplastic elastomers with rigid and flexible chain segments, poly(butylene succinate-co-phenolphthalein butylene succinate) (SAA-PHE-PBS), were prepared by the chain modulation synthesis method. The molecular weight, chemical structure composition, thermal properties and crystallization property of PBS and its copolymers were investigated, and their biodegradability was tested with Candida antarctica lipase B. The results showed that the glass transition temperature of multi-block hydroxyl-terminated diol copolymer did not change much, the melting tempe-rature did not change significantly, the crystallinity decreased, the hydrophilicity was improved, and the biodegradability was greatly improved. The glass transition temperature of the triblock thermoplastic elastomer SAA-PHE-PBS was elevated, the crystallinity was not much different from that of PBS, the hydrophobicity was stronger than that of PBS, resi-dual mass fraction of SAA-PHE-PBS increased, and the biodegradability showed different degrees of decline.

Keywords

• succinic anhydride
• terminal hydroxy diol
• poly(butylene succinate)
• one-step method
• copolymerization
• block copolymer
• thermal property
• biodegradabilit