TY - JOUR
T1 - Strong, Resilient, and Sustainable Aliphatic Polyester Thermoplastic Elastomers
AU - Watts, Annabelle
AU - Kurokawa, Naruki
AU - Hillmyer, Marc A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Data was collected using an instrument funded by the National Science Foundation under Award Number 0960140.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/6/12
Y1 - 2017/6/12
N2 - Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) composed of ABA block polymers exhibit a wide variety of properties and are easily processable as they contain physical, rather than chemical, cross-links. Poly(γ-methyl-Îμ -caprolactone) (PγMCL) is an amorphous polymer with a low entanglement molar mass (Me = 2.9 kg mol-1), making it a suitable choice for tough elastomers. Incorporating PγMCL as the midblock with polylactide (PLA) end blocks (fLA = 0.17) results in TPEs with high stresses and elongations at break (σB = 24 ± 2 MPa and ϵB = 1029 ± 20%, respectively) and low levels of hysteresis. The use of isotactic PLA as the end blocks (fLLA = 0.17) increases the strength and toughness of the material (σB = 30 ± 4 MPa, ϵB = 988 ± 30%) due to its semicrystalline nature. This study aims to demonstrate how the outstanding properties in these sustainable materials are a result of the entanglements, glass transition temperature, segment-segment interaction parameter, and crystallinity, resulting in comparable properties to the commercially relevant styrene-based TPEs.
AB - Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) composed of ABA block polymers exhibit a wide variety of properties and are easily processable as they contain physical, rather than chemical, cross-links. Poly(γ-methyl-Îμ -caprolactone) (PγMCL) is an amorphous polymer with a low entanglement molar mass (Me = 2.9 kg mol-1), making it a suitable choice for tough elastomers. Incorporating PγMCL as the midblock with polylactide (PLA) end blocks (fLA = 0.17) results in TPEs with high stresses and elongations at break (σB = 24 ± 2 MPa and ϵB = 1029 ± 20%, respectively) and low levels of hysteresis. The use of isotactic PLA as the end blocks (fLLA = 0.17) increases the strength and toughness of the material (σB = 30 ± 4 MPa, ϵB = 988 ± 30%) due to its semicrystalline nature. This study aims to demonstrate how the outstanding properties in these sustainable materials are a result of the entanglements, glass transition temperature, segment-segment interaction parameter, and crystallinity, resulting in comparable properties to the commercially relevant styrene-based TPEs.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b00283
DO - 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b00283
M3 - Article
C2 - 28467049
AN - SCOPUS:85020733339
SN - 1525-7797
VL - 18
SP - 1845
EP - 1854
JO - Biomacromolecules
JF - Biomacromolecules
IS - 6
ER -