Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) are block copolymer structures comprised of hard and soft segments. With the properties of both thermoplastics and elastomers, traditional TPEs are used widely in the automotive, medical, and consumer products industries, but they are made from petroleum-based monomers (e.g., styrene and butadiene) and not degradable. We present here a method for synthesizing TPEs based on an ABA triblock polymer structure that contains a central, photodegradable soft block and renewable, biodegradable hard blocks. The core block is made by ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of cyclooctadiene and an unsaturated cyclic ketone comonomer to yield polybutadiene with random ketone incorporation. This synthetic block can be degraded through Norrish fragmentation pathways upon activation with UV-C light. To complete the ABA triblock polymer structure, the alcohol chain ends on the core block polymers are used to initiate the polymerization of lactide. Cellulose derivatives can also be incorporated as the A blocks to make cellulose-based TPEs. These novel thermoplastic elastomers are both photo- and biodegradable, with tunable photodegradability depending on the level of incorporation of the ketone-containing comonomer in the soft block and tunable biodegradability depending on the choice of hard block monomer.

Photo- and biodegradable thermoplastic elastomers containing cellulose and polylactide

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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