Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Sequential Structure and Crystallization Properties for Hydrophilic Modified Polyester

• Main Authors: Lina Sun, Liqian Huang, Xueli Wang, Hongmei Hu, Juanzi Guo, Ruishu Zhu, Shuang He
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Polymers
• Subjects: copolyester; hydrophilic; sequential structure; crystallization properties
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/12/8/1733

The hydrophilic copolyester polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (ENCDP-X) was successfully synthesized by chemical modification consisting of copolymerization and blending and the comonomers, including sodium isophthalate-5-sulfonate (SIPE), polyethylene glycol (PEG), 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-propanediol (NPG) and matting agent TiO₂ with different content. Moreover, the structural characterization of sequential structure, crystallization and thermal properties were studied. The results showed that the comonomers were successfully embedded in the copolyester, the actual molar ratio in the copolyester was consistent with the relative feed ratio and the degree of randomness was calculated to be 0.99, showing that the random copolymers synthesized during the melt polycondensation process and the chemical structure was roughly consistent with the expected molecular chain sequence structure. The thermal parameters of the modified copolyester, containing the glass transition temperature (<i>T</i>_g), melting point (<i>T</i>_m), crystallinity (<i>X</i>_c) and thermal degradation temperature, were decreased, and the cold crystallization temperature (<i>T</i>_c) was increased. In addition, with the increasing of the TiO₂ content, it improves the thermal performance of the copolyester and it is beneficial to processing and application. The above conclusion is further verified by non-isothermal kinetic analysis. In addition, the copolyester exhibited the better hydrophilicity than pure PET.