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Updated: Jul 19, 2025

Designed for Molecular Recycling: A Lignin-Derived Semi-aromatic Biobased Polymer
Published on: November 30, 2020
Long-Chain Branched Bio-Based Poly(butylene dodecanedioate) Copolyester Using Pentaerythritol as Branching Agent:
Ruixue Niu1,2, Zhening Zheng3, Xuedong Lv1
1School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, China.
Abstract:
The introduction of long-chain branched structures into biodegradable polyesters can effectively improve the melt strength and blow-molding properties of polyesters. In this study, pentaerythritol (PER) was used as a branching agent to synthesize branched poly(butylene dodecanedioate) (PBD), and the resulting polymers were characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Proton Spectra (1H NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). It was found that the introduction of a small amount of PER (0.25-0.5 mol%) can generate branching and even crosslinking structures. Both impact strength and tensile modulus can be greatly improved by the introduction of a branching agent. With the introduction of 1 mol% PER content in PBD, the notched impact strength of PBD has been increased by 85%, and the tensile modulus has been increased by 206%. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry results showed that PER-branched PBDs exhibited improved crystallization ability compared with linear PBDs. Dynamic viscoelastics revealed that shear-thickening behaviors can be found for all branched PBD under low shear rates.
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