Over the past decade a great deal of research and commercial activity has occurred on the use of 2,2,4,4 tetramethyl 1,3 cyclobutanediol (CBDO) monomer in polyester polymers. These polyesters exhibit extremely high impact resistance ( 40% greater than polycarbonate), exceptional ballistics performance, and extraordinary shape memory and self-healing properties. Nanocomposites made with this family of polymers retains these extraordinary characteristics but in addition the composites yield improved modulus and increased elongation at break. The CBDO monomer exist in a trans and cis conformation and in an effort to understand the origin of the unique properties of this family of polymers the the two forms have been purified and utilized to produce polymers with only trans or cis monomer. This paper will report the properties of these two end members and how they correlate with the type of monomer. It is clear from this work that the cis form of the monomer is critical to the observed properties of high impact strength and shape memory.

Structure property relationships in cyclobutanediol based polymers and polymer nanocomposites exhibiting high impact and shape memory

247th National Meeting (2014)

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