Bio-based aromatic copoly(ether ester)s with enhanced toughness and degradability: Influence of insertion of phenoxy-ether linkage and eugenol-derived composition on properties

Two series of renewable nipagin and eugenol-based copoly(ether ester)s, PDN1 1− x E1 x and PDN1 1− x E2 x ( x = 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%), were prepared in the melt with 1,10-decanediol as a comonomer. The synthesized poly(ether ester)s have weight-average molecular weights ( M w ) in the range of 20,400–37,200 g mol −1 , and dispersity ( D ) values between 1.7 and 1.9. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) reveal that all the poly(ether ester)s exhibit a two-step degradation mechanism with an initial degradation temperature above 350 °C. Results from differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WXRD) analyses demonstrate that the poly(ether ester)s are all semicrystalline materials with glass transition temperature ( T g ) values ranging between −21.3 and −8.3 °C. The insertions of phenoxy-ether linkage and eugenol-derived composition have significant influence on the T g , crystallinity, Young's modulus, and tensile strength, as well as the toughening effect and degradability. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54 , 2171–2183