Synthesis,characterization and isothermal crystallization behavior of poly(butylene succinate)‐b‐poly(diethylene glycol succinate) multiblock copolymers

In order to modify the properties of poly(butylene succinate), poly(diethylene glycol succinate) (PDGS) segment was incorporated by chain‐extension reaction of dihydroxyl‐terminated PBS and PDGS precursors using hexamethylene diisocyanate as a chain extender to form PBS‐b‐PDGS multiblock copolymers. The chemical structure and basic physical properties of the multiblock copolyesters were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), wide angle X‐ray diffraction, and tensile testing. The results suggested that the incorporation of PDGS segments would increase the elongation at break of PBS significantly while decrease its melting temperature and crystallization temperature slightly. The isothermal crystallization kinetics studied by DSC and polarized optical microscopy indicated that the crystallization rate of the multiblock polymers decreased gradually with increasing PDGS segment content while the crystallization mechanism kept unchanged and the spherulitic growth rate of the multiblock copolymers decreased gradually with increase in PDGS content due to its diluent effect to the crystallization of PBS segments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Molecular Weight on the Properties of Poly（butylene succinate）

Poly（butylene succinate） （PBS） with different molecular weight was synthesized from 1, 4-butanediol and succinic acid by direct melt condensation. The synthesized PBS was identified by IH-NMR and FTIR spectrometry. The molecular weight was calculated from the intrinsic viscosity, and its value was between 20000 and 70000. The crystallization behavior and crystal morphology as function of molecular weight were investigated by DSC and PLM, respectively. The mechanical properties and hydrolytic degradation behaviors related with change of molecular weight were also studied in this work. The results demonstrated that the properties of PBS were determined by both molecular weight and crystallization properties （crystallinity as well as crystal morphology）. Our work is important for the design and preparation of PBS with proper molecular weight for its practical application.     

Synthesis of high‐impact biodegradable multiblock copolymers comprising of poly(butylene succinate) and poly(1,2‐propylene succinate) with hexamethylene diisocyanate as chain extender

Block copolymers demonstrate excellent thermal and mechanical properties superior to their corresponding random copolymers and homopolymers. However, it is difficult to synthesize block copolymers comprising of different polyester segments by copolycondensation due to the serious transesterification reaction. In this study, multiblock copolymers comprising of two different polyester segments, i.e. crystallizable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and amorphous poly(1,2‐propylene succinate) (PPSu), were synthesized by chain‐extension with hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). Amorphous PPSu segment was incorporated to improve the impact strength of PBS. The copolymers were characterized by GPC, laser light scattering (LLS), NMR, DSC, and mechanical testing. The results of ¹³C NMR spectra suggest that multiblock copolymers with regular sequential structure have been successfully synthesized. The data of DSC and mechanical testing indicate that block copolymers possess excellent thermal and mechanical properties with satisfactory tensile strength and extraordinary impact strength achieving upto 1900% of pure PBS. The influence of PPSu ratio and chain length of both the segments on the thermal and mechanical properties was investigated. The incorporation of an amorphous soft segment PPSu imparts high‐impact resistance to the copolymers without obviously decreasing the melting point (T_m). The favorable mechanical and thermal properties of the copolymers also depend on their regular sequential structure. At the same time, the introduction of amorphous PPSu segment enhances the enzymatic degradation rate of the multiblock copolymers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

聚碳酸1,2-丙二酯/聚琥珀酸丁二酯/邻苯二甲酸二烯丙酯共混体系的研究

采用熔融共混的方法制备了聚碳酸1,2-丙二酯(PPC)/聚琥珀酸丁二酯(PBS)共混物和PPC/PBS/DAOP(邻苯二甲酸二烯丙酯)增塑共混物,对共混物的相容性、热性能、结晶性和物理机械性能进行了初步研究.研究结果表明PPC/PBS共混物为不相容体系,PPC对PBS的结晶度影响很小;PBS的加入提高了共混物的起始热分解温度(Td-5%),当共混物中PBS含量从10%增加到90%时,共混物的Td-5%可分别增加15℃到59℃.DAOP对PPC/PBS共混物有增塑作用,当PPC/PBS/DAOP的比例从30/70/0变化到30/70/30时,共混物玻璃化转变温度(Tg)下降了36.9℃.与PPC/PBS共混物相比,组成优化的DAOP增塑共混物PPC/PBS/DAOP(PPC/PBS/DAOP=30/70/5)的断裂伸长率和断裂能最大可提高31倍和34倍,分别达到655.1%和3.4 J/mm2,因此引入DAOP尽管使共混材料的热稳定性有所下降,但拓宽了PPC/PBS共混材料的使用温度窗口.     

Effects of crystallization temperature and blend ratio on the crystal structure of poly(butylene adipate) in the poly(butylene adipate)/poly(butylene succinate) blends

The effects of crystallization temperature and blend ratio on the polymorphic crystal structures of poly(butylene adipate)(PBA) in poly(butylene succinate)(PBS)/poly(butylene adipate)(PBS/PBA) blends were studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry(DSC), wide-angle X-ray diffraction(XRD) and atomic force microscopy(AFM). It was revealed that the polymorphism of PBA can be regulated by the blend ratio even in a non-isothermal crystallization process. The results demonstrate that high temperature favors flat-on α crystals, while low temperature contributes to edge-on β crystals. It was also found that the effect of blend ratio on the crystallization mechanism of PBA is well coincident with that of the crystallization temperature. The increment of PBS content in the PBS/PBA blend gives rise to more β-form crystals of PBA. For those PBS/PBA blends with low PBA content, the interlamellar phase segregation of PBA makes its molecular chains so difficult to diffuse from one isolated microdomain to another that high crystallization temperature and sufficiently long crystallization time will be required if the PBA α-type crystals are targeted.     

Novel poly(butylene succinate-co-lactic acid) copolyesters: Synthesis, crystallization, and enzymatic degradation

A series of aliphatic biodegradable poly(butylene succinate-co-dl-lactide) (PBSLA) copolyesters were synthesized with the aim of improving the degradation rate of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) by incorporation of dl-oligo(lactic acid) (OLA) into the PBS molecular chains. The composition and sequential structure of the aliphatic copolyesters were investigated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy. The crystallization behaviors, the crystal structure and morphology of the copolyesters were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and polarizing optical microscopy (POM), respectively. The results indicate that the crystallization of the copolyesters was restricted by the incorporation of lactide (LA) units, which further tuned the mechanical properties of the copolyesters. The copolyesters could form complete spherulites and exhibit the same crystal structure as that of PBS. Enzymatic study indicated that the copolyesters with higher content of LA units degraded faster, and the degradation began in the amorphous regions and then in the crystalline regions. The morphology and the resulting degradation products of the copolyesters were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ¹H NMR analysis during the degradation process.     

Fully biodegradable blends of poly(butylene succinate) and poly(butylene carbonate): Miscibility, thermal properties, crystallization behavior and mechanical properties

Fully biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene carbonate) (PBC) blends were prepared by melt blending. Miscibility, thermal properties, crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of PBS/PBC blends were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), phase contrast optical microscopy (PCOM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and mechanical properties tests. The SEM and PCOM results indicated that PBS was immiscible with PBC. The WAXD results showed that the crystal structures of both PBS and PBC were not changed by blending and the two components crystallized separately in the blends. The isothermal crystallization data showed that the crystallization rate of PBS increased with the increase of PBC content in the blends. The impact strength of PBS was improved significantly by blending with PBC. When the PBC content was 40%, the impact strength of PBS was increased by nearly 9 times.     

The hydrolytic effect of moisture and hygrothermal aging on poly(butylene succinate)/organo-montmorillonite nanocomposites

The study of hydrolysis on biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is essential to predict the materials properties in a humid environment. In this study, PBS nanocomposites were exposed to different conditions of relative humidity (RH) and temperature. The moisture uptake increased with organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) loading and the RH of the testing environment. The exposure of PBS and the nanocomposites to a humid environment caused changes in the mechanical properties. The hydrolytic degradation becomes more pronounced upon hygrothermal aging at high temperature, whereby premature failure occurred. PBS nanocomposites were found to exhibit a better hydrolytic stability than neat PBS. The degradation was evaluated through Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). A drastic reduction in the molecular weight of PBS has revealed the occurrence of degradation after exposure to moisture and heat. This has led to an alteration of the thermal behavior as investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).     

Transesterification and crystallization behavior of poly(butylene succinate)/poly(butylene terephthalate) block copolymers

The block copolymers of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) were synthesized by melt processing for different times. The sequence distribution, thermal properties, and crystallization behavior were investigated over a wide range of compositions. For PBS/PBT block copolymers it was confirmed by statistical analysis from ¹H-NMR data that the degree of randomness (B) was below 1. The melting peak (T_m) gradually moved to lower temperature with increasing melt processing time. It can be seen that the transesterification between PBS and PBT leads to a random copolymer. From the X-ray diffraction diagrams, only the crystal structure of PBS appeared in the M1 copolymer (PBS 80 wt %) and that of PBT appeared in the M3 (PBS 50 wt %) to M5 (PBS 20 wt %) copolymers. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 147–156, 1998     

Influence of transesterification reactions on the miscibility and thermal properties of poly(butylene/diethylene succinate) copolymers

Poly(butylene/diethylene succinate) block copolymers (PBSPDGS), prepared by reactive blending of the parent homopolymers (PBS and PDGS) in the presence of Ti(OBu)₄, were analyzed by ¹H-NMR, TGA and DSC, in order to investigate the effects of the transesterification reactions on the molecular structure and thermal properties. ¹H-NMR analysis evidenced the formation of copolymers whose degree of randomness increases with the mixing time. The thermal analysis of the melt-quenched samples showed that the melting peak, due to the crystalline phase of PBS, tends to disappear with increasing mixing time and therefore with decreasing the block length in the copolymers. As concern miscibility, a single homogeneous amorphous phase always occurred, independently on block length. Nevertheless, a phase separation, due to the tendency of the PBS blocks to crystallize, was evidenced in the copolymers with long butylene succinate sequences. The results obtained indicated that the block size had a fundamental role in determining the crystallizability and, therefore, phase behavior of the block copolymers.     

Nonisothermal crystallization and morphology of poly(butylene succinate)/layered double hydroxide nanocomposites

Biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposites were prepared via melt blending in a twin-screw extruder. The morphology and dispersion of LDH nanoparticles within PBS matrix were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which showed that LDH nanoparticles were found to be well distributed at the nanometer level. The nonisothermal crystallization behavior of nanocomposites was extensively studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique at various cooling rates. The crystallization rate of PBS was accelerated by the addition of LDH due to its heterogeneous nucleation effect; however, the crystallization mechanism and crystal structure of PBS remained almost unchanged. In kinetics analysis of nonisothermal crystallization, the Ozawa approach failed to describe the crystallization behavior of PBS/LDH nanocomposites, whereas both the modified Avrami model and the Mo method well represented the crystallization behavior of nanocomposites. The effective activation energy was estimated as a function of the relative degree of crystallinity using the isoconversional analysis. The subsequent melting behavior of PBS and PBS/LDH nanocomposites was observed to be dependent on the cooling rate. The POM showed that the small and less perfect crystals were formed in nanocomposites.     

New Strategy for Enzymatic Synthesis of High‐Molecular‐Weight Poly(butylene succinate) via Cyclic Oligomers

Summary: High‐molecular‐weight poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is prepared by the lipase‐catalyzed polymerization of dimethyl succinate and butane‐1,4‐diol via the formation of cyclic oligomers as a new strategy for the green production of bio‐based plastics. The cyclic oligomer is first produced by the lipase‐catalyzed condensation of dimethyl succinate and butane‐1,4‐diol in a dilute toluene solution using lipase from Candida antarctica, followed by the ring‐opening polymerization of the cyclic oligomer in a more concentrated solution or in bulk with the same lipase to produce PBS with an of 130 000. On the other hand, PBS is produced with an of 45 000 by direct polycondensation.

The lipase‐catalyzed preparation of PBS by two routes.     

Crystallization kinetics and morphology of biodegradable poly(butylene succinate‐co‐propylene succinate)s

The crystallization behavior of biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) and copolyesters poly(butylene succinate‐co‐propylene succinate)s (PBSPS) was investigated by using ¹H NMR, DSC and POM, respectively. Isothermal crystallization kinetics of the polyesters has been analyzed by the Avrami equation. The 2.2‐2.8 range of Avrami exponential n indicated that the crystallization mechanism was a heterogeneous nucleation with spherical growth geometry in the crystallization process of polyesters. Multiple melting peaks were observed during heating process after isothermal crystallization, and it could be explained by the melting and recrystallization model. PBSPS was identified to have the same crystal structure with that of PBS by using wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), suggesting that only BS unit crystallized while the PS unit was in an amorphous state. The crystal structure of polyesters was not affected by the crystallization temperatures, too. Besides the normal extinction crosses under the POM, the double‐banded extinction patterns with periodic distance along the radial direction were also observed in the spherulites of PBS and PBSPS. The morphology of spherulites strongly depended on the crystallization temperature. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 420–428, 2007     

末端为磷酰胆碱基团的聚丁二酸丁二醇酯的酶促降解和热性能

以聚丁二酸丁二醇酯(PBS)为参照, 研究了酯酶Lipase AY30对亲水磷酰胆碱(PC)基团改性的聚丁二酸丁二醇酯(PBS-PC)的生物降解性能的影响. 结果显示, 在酯酶Lipase AY30作用下, 21 d后PBS的质量损失仅为1.9%, 而PBS-PC的质量损失了9.7%. 相同条件下扣除各自水解引起的质量损失(PBS 1.4%和PBS-PC 6.5%)后, PC亲水基团的引入对聚合物的降解起到了促进作用. 示差扫描量热(DSC)研究结果表明, 改性后的聚合物熔融温度和熔融焓降低, 玻璃化转变温度升高, 表明PC端基的引入降低了PBS的结晶能力, 非晶相结构的增多对聚合物降解有促进作用. 因此PBS-PC有望作为一种新的具有良好生物降解性和生物相容性的高分子材料, 应用于药物控释、基因治疗及组织工程等生物医用材料领域.     

Investigation on the gelation behavior of biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) during isothermal crystallization process

The early stage of polymer crystallization may be viewed as physical gelation process,i.e.,the phase transition of polymer from liquid to solid.Determination of the gel point is of significance in polymer processing.In this work,the gelation behavior of poly(butylene succinate)(PBS) at different temperatures has been investigated by rheological method.It was found that during the isothermal crystallization process of PBS,both the storage modulus(G′) and the loss modulus(G″) increase with time,and the rheological response of the system varies from viscous-dominated(G′G″),meaning the phase transition from liquid to solid.The physical gel point was determined by the intersection point of loss tangent curves measured under different frequencies.The gel time(t_c) for PBS was found to increase with increasing crystallization temperature.The relative crystallinity of PBS at the gel point is very low(2.5%-8.5%) and increases with increasing the crystallization temperature.The low crystallinity of PBS at the gel point suggests that only a few junctions are necessary to form a spanning network,indicating that the network is"loosely"connected,in another word,the critical gel is soft.Due to the elevated crystallinity at gel point under higher crystallization temperature,the gel strength S_g increases, while the relaxation exponent n decreases with increasing the crystallization temperature.These experimental results suggest that rheological method is an effective tool for verifying the gel point of biodegradable semi-crystalline polymers.     

PBS基生物降解材料的研究进展

PBS(聚丁二酸丁二醇酯 )是一种具有良好生物降解性的聚酯塑料。本文简述了PBS的基本特性、降解机理和制备方法 ,对各种PBS基生物降解材料的特性进行了分析 ,介绍了PBS基生物降解材料的研究进展     

Effects of comonomer sequential structure on thermal and crystallization behaviors of biodegradable poly(butylene succinate‐co‐butylene terephthalate)s

In this work, new investigations on the effect of comonomer sequential structure on the thermal and crystallization behaviors and biodegradability have been implemented for the biodegradable poly(butylene succinate‐co‐butylene terephthalate) (PBST) as well as aliphatic poly(butylene succinate) (PBS). At first, these copolyesters were efficiently synthesized from dimethyl succinate and/or dimethyl terephthalate and 1,4‐butanediol via condensation polymerization in bulk. Subsequently, their molecular weights and macromolecular chain structures were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. By means of differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and wide‐angle X‐ray diffractometer (WAXD), thermal and crystallization behaviors of these synthesized aromatic–aliphatic copolyesters were further explored. It was demonstrated that the synthesized copolyesters were revealed to have random comonomer sequential structures with thermal and crystallization properties strongly depending on their comonomer molar compositions, and that crystal lattice structures of the new crystallizable copolyesters shifted from the monoclinic crystal of semicrystalline PBS to triclinic lattice of the poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with increasing the terephthalate comonomer composition, and the minor comonomer components were suggested to be trapped in the crystallizable component domains as defects. In addition, the enzymatic degradability was also characterized for the copolyesters film samples. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 1635–1644, 2006     

Effect of transesterification reactions on the crystallization behaviour and morphology of poly(butylene/diethylene succinate) block copolymers

The melting behaviour, the crystallization kinetics and the morphology of block poly(butylene/diethylene succinate) copolymers (PBSPDGS) were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry and hot stage optical microscopy. Multiple endotherms were evidenced in the PBSPDGS samples, due to melting and recrystallization processes, similarly to PBS. By applying the Hoffman-Weeks’ method, the of both the homopolymer and the copolymers was derived. The isothermal crystallization kinetics was analyzed according to the Avrami’s treatment. The copolymers with long PBS blocks are characterized by a very similar behaviour with respect to pure poly(butilene succinate), indicating that PBS macromolecular folding is not affected by the presence of non-crystallizable diethylene succinate blocks. On the contrary, the copolymers characterized by very short PBS block length were found to crystallize at a slower rate than the homopolymer. As a matter of fact, a higher value of the work of chain folding was also derived on the basis of Hoffman-Lauritzen nucleation theory. Anyway, in all cases the crystallization mechanism (heterogeneous nucleation and three-dimensional growth) was found to be the same.     

Synthesis and characterization of biodegradable aliphatic copolyesters with poly(ethylene oxide) soft segments

A series of multiblock poly(ether-ester)s based on poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) as the hard segments and hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as the soft segments was synthesized with the aim of developing degradable polymers which could combine the mechanical properties of high performance elastomers with those of flexible plastics. The aliphatic poly(ether-ester)s were synthesized by the catalyzed two-step transesterification reaction of dimethyl succinate, 1,4-butanediol and α,ω-hydroxyl terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO, = 1000 g/mol) in bulk. The content of soft PEO segments in the polymer chains was varied from about 10 to 50 mass%. The effect of the introduction of the soft PEO segments on the structure, thermal and physical properties, as well as on the biodegradation properties was investigated. The composition and structure of these aliphatic segmented copolyesters were determined by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The molecular weights of the polyesters were verified by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), as well as by viscometry of dilute solutions and polymer melts. The thermal properties were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The degree of crystallinity was determined by means of DSC and wide-angle X-ray scattering. A depression of melting temperature and a reduction of crystallinity of the hard segments with increasing content of PEO segments were observed. Biodegradation of the synthesized copolyesters, estimated in enzymatic degradation tests in phosphate buffer solution with Candida rugosa lipase at 37 °C was compared with hydrolytic degradation in the buffer solution. The weight losses of the samples were in the range from 2 to 10 mass%. GPC analysis confirmed that there were significant changes in molecular weight of copolyesters with higher content of PEO segments, up to 40% of initial values. This leads to conclusion that degradation mechanism of the poly(ether-ester)s based on PEO segments occurs through bulk degradation in addition to surface erosion.     

生物可降解聚丁二酸/甲基丁二酸丁二酯系列共聚物的合成和表征

摘要合成了一系列聚丁二酸/甲基丁二酸丁二醇共聚酯(PBSM), 利用DSC, ¹H NMR和X射线衍射等方法对共聚物组成、 热学性能、 结晶性能、 等温结晶行为进行了研究. 结果表明, 引入甲基丁二酸共聚单元较为显著地改变了聚丁二酸丁二酯(PBS)的热学性能, 利用Hoffman\|Weeks方程得到的共聚物平衡熔点随共聚物的组分含量增加而降低, 玻璃化转变温度亦有所降低, 熔点则符合无规共聚物的Flory方程. 此外, 利用Avrami方程分别研究了均聚物PBS及共聚物PBSM-20的等温结晶行为, 结果表明, 在所研究的温度范围内, 聚酯结晶速率随温度升高而降低, PBS和PBSM\-20的Avrami指数分别介于2.8~3.0和2.7~3.0之间, 结晶方式为三维生长异相成核, 而X射线衍射测试结果表明晶体结构几乎不变.