Poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF) is a promising biobased polyester whose chemical structure is analogous to poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). Despite the similarity in chemical structure, PEF is often reported to have a higher glass transition temperature than PET. Therefore we conducted an in-depth analysis of the glass transition dynamics to understand and explain this difference from the point of view of molecular motion. The dynamic of the cooperative relaxation process of PEF was examined by means of multi-frequency temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TOPEM®) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) (Figure 1). Fraction (RAF) and the average sizes of the cooperative rearranging region (CRR) in the glass transition region were determined for PEF with different degrees of crystallinity. It is shown that CRR size decreases when crystallinity increases, due to the amorphous phase confinement by the crystals. The DMA measurements are in good agreement with the TOPEM results. The glass transition temperature and the half-high width were obtained from the loss modulus curve and allowed calculation of the characteristic volume of cooperativity. The dynamic relaxation phenomena have shown a frequency dependent behavior and the activation energy of the glass transition was determined for the amorphous and crystalline samples and the differences will be discussed.

Glass transition dynamics of biobased poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate)

249th National Meeting (2015)

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