Preparation of poly(butylene succinate) vitrimer with thermal shape stability via transesterification reaction

Abstract

Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) refers to a high‐performance biodegradable polymer employed to substitute petroleum polymers that cause environmental issues. However, PBS exhibits the defect of flowing above the melting point and rapid dripping for its poor melt strength. Accordingly, this study proposed a novel method to fabricate PBS vitrimer by exploiting reactive extrusion technology to mix diepoxide with PBS and then by employing zinc acetate as a catalyst to crosslink the PBS. Therefore, after the reaction extrusion blending, the blend still has a lower viscosity and high processing performance; in the subsequent curing process, the polymer undergoes a transesterification reaction and the viscosity increases. Via transesterification to form a cross‐linked network, the storage modulus, and loss modulus of PBS vitrimer at 140°C reach 55,800% and 3500% of pure PBS, respectively. At this time, the crystallinity of PBS vitrimer is still as high as 56.9% (The crystallinity of pure PBS is 47.4%). And the shape stability of PBS at high temperatures was significantly improved. Moreover, PBS vitrimer could still be reshaped after the cross‐linking process. This study proposed a facile method to produce PBS materials exhibiting high thermal shape stability.

Vitrimers: Using Dynamic Associative Bonds to Control Viscoelasticity, Assembly, and Functionality in Polymer Networks

“…Much of the work to date on vitrimers has focused on their dynamic properties (such as stress relaxation times or viscosities) as well as the mechanical properties before and after recycling. Most vitrimers are studied in the amorphous state, but recent investigations have probed how dynamic bonds impact the nanostructure, including phase separation − and crystallization. ,− If vitrimers are slated to be replacements for commodity plastics, an improved understanding of assembly, crystallization, and phase separation is needed for the broad range of polymer applications. One of the earliest examples of this was in polyethylene vitrimers, which have been shown to form nanoscale clusters of the dioxaborolane cross-linking moieties within the incompatible matrix, which provides additional cross-linking and impacts the stress relaxation of the network (Figure a). , Understanding when the dynamic bonds will phase separate from the matrix is critical for the interpretation of stress relaxation and self-healing investigations.…”

“…While the crystallization of polymers has been heavily investigated for decades, melting temperatures ( T m ) have only been reported in a limited number of vitrimers based on PE, , PDMS, poly­(butylene terephthalate), and poly­(butylene succinate) . It has recently been reported that the presence of dynamic bonds in vitrimers allows for crystallization, which is not possible in a permanent network with the same linker (Figure b) .…”

High-Tg and Degradable Isosorbide-Based Polybenzoxazine Vitrimer

“…For instance, Athanassiou et al have reported biodegradable epoxidized soybean oil acrylate vitrimers. 10 Degradable vitrimers prepared from poly(butylene succinate), 11 vanillin, 12 polycarbonate, 13 and glycyrrhizic acid 14 have also been reported, and the recent review of Shaver highlights the most recent achievements in this field. 15 However, the development of vitrimers with both a high glass-transition temperature (T g ) and degradability under mild conditions is still a major challenge.…”

Fast Upcycling of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) into Catalyst-Free Vitrimers

“…Some of the recent efforts have been devoted to design and fabricate polyester vitrimers, which has been demonstrated as an efficient way to improve their melt strength, processing property, and recyclability through constructing dynamic cross-links. ,− However, it is noticed that there are some severe problems that limited the large-scale production and practical application of currently reported polyester vitrimers. Demongeot et al, Zhou et al, and Farge et al .…”