Synthesis of high mechanical performance transparent polyester by copolymerization of hydrogenated bisphenol A and PBS

The environmental pollution caused by traditional plastics and the shortage of petroleum resources have increasingly garnered attention. The non-renewable nature of traditional petroleum-based materials has prompted an increasing number of researchers to focus on developing biodegradable bio-based materials. Polybutylene succinate (PBS) has garnered significant attention due to its excellent properties and low price. However, the poor toughness of PBS limits its applications. In this paper, an environmentally friendly rigid cyclic structure, hydrogenated bisphenol A (HBPA), is introduced into the synthesis of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), forming the PBHBPAS copolymer. The addition of HBPA reduces the crystallinity of PBS, thereby increasing the elongation at break and improving toughness. It also significantly enhances the glass transition temperature (T g ), mechanical properties, and optical transparency of the copolymer, greatly expanding the application fields of PBS. Due to HBPA's relatively regular and long-chain rigid structure, the synthesized copolymer can significantly increase its elongation at break without reducing tensile strength. Specifically, the synthesized PBHBPAS5 exhibits a tensile strength of 43 MPa and an elongation at break of 557 %. Its toughness and tensile strength are both improved compared to PBS, significantly enhancing its mechanical properties. In addition, the optical transparency test results indicate that the optical transparency of PBHBPAS20 is approximately 16 times that of PBS. The water degradation test reveals that copolyesters with varying proportions of HBPA exhibit polyesters with different degradation rates, which are slower than that of PBS, thereby broadening the application fields of PBS in transparent packaging and degradable mulching films.