to other bicyclic sugar-based diols reported in the literature, Glux-diol appeared to be more 22 efficient in both increasing the T g and enhancing the susceptibility to hydrolysis of PBS.
24
Introduction
25A growing interest for chemicals derived from renewable resources which are 26 able to replace oil-based monomers for the production of industrial polymers is 27 noticeable in these last years.1,2 Additionally, environmental pollution has recently 28 become a big problem of both social and technical repercussions due largely to the 29 high impact of plastic wastes.3 The most popular approach followed today to give 30 response to these concerns is to replace the commodity synthetic polymers by bio-31 based polymers. 4,5,6 In fact, polymers made from monomers derived from non-fossil 32 materials are sustainable and also total or partially susceptible to microbial 33 degradation.7 Aliphatic polyesters such as poly (L-lactic biodegradability when compared to PET and PBT. 19b,20b
67The purpose of this work is to explore the effects on properties of PBS caused 68 by the presence of carbohydrate-based diacetalized bicyclic units in the polymer chain, 69 more specifically of 2,4:3,5-di-O-methylene-D-glucitol, abbreviated as Glux-diol. We 70 have very recently reported on PBS copolyesters made from Manx-diol, the 71 stereoisomer of Glux-diol that derives from D-mannose. 21 Both isomers consist of two 72 fused 1,3-dioxane rings structure sharing a C6-segment backbone that bears two 73 hydroxyl functions at the end positions. At difference with Manx-diol, Glux-diol is 74 asymmetric so its two OH groups are spatially and hence chemically different (Scheme 75 1). Random PBS copolyesters containing Manx units could be obtained with M w above 76 30,000, they were semicrystalline for the whole range of compositions and displayed 77 enhanced T g and biodegradability. Since polymerization rate as well as polymer 78 properties are largely depending on monomer symmetry, it is of much conceptual 79 interest to compare Manx and Glux diols as comonomers for the production of PBS 80 copolyesters. Additionally, data obtained from this study can be related to those 81 reported for PBS copolyesters containing isosorbide in order to assess diacetalized 82 and dianhydride bicyclic diols as optional comonomers for their capacity to improve 83 PBS properties. The study is also of practical relevance since Glux-diol is a compound 84 coming from D-glucose, the most available monosaccharide in nature. C NMR spectra were recorded on a Bruker AMX-300 spectrometer at 102 25.0 ºC operating at 300.1 and 75.5 MHz, respectively. Polyesters were dissolved 103 either in deuterated chloroform or in a mixture of deuterated chloroform/ trifluoroacetic 104 acid (TFA) (1/1), and spectra were internally referenced to tetramethylsilane (TMS). 105About 10 and 50 mg of sample dissolved in 1 mL of solvent were used for 1 H and 13 C 106 NMR, respectively. Sixty-four scans were acquired for 1 H and 1,000-10,000 for 13 C with 107 32 and 64-K data points ...