A green cascade polymerization method for the facile synthesis of sustainable poly(butylene-co-decylene terephthalate) copolymers

Typical semicrystalline aromatic polyesters are synthesized via the condensation polymerization of aromatic diacids with excess diols in vacuum. We demonstrate here a green cascade polycondensation-coupling ring-opening polymerization (PROP) method for the facile incorporation of diols into polyesters in N 2 , utilizing cyclic oligo(butylene terephthlate)s as monomer and bio-based 1,10-decanediol as initiator. Poly(butylene- co -decylene terephthalate) (PBDT) copolyesters are synthesized with high atom economy (87–99%), and their structures are characterized and confirmed by the 1 H quantitative NMR, two dimensional 1 H– 1 H gCOSY and DOSY NMR spectra . Property investigations reveal that with the increment of decanediol content, the glass transition temperature , melting temperature, storage modulus and Young's modulus for PBDT copolyesters decrease, while the toughness increases, respectively. Our results provide a high atom economy PROP method for the synthesis of sustainable PBDT copolyesters, which have lower processing temperatures and improved ductility than poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) homopolymers , and could draw attentions for further investigations on the green synthesis of other copolyesters.