abstract
Erythritol is a sweetener polyol widely distributed in nature. Its industrial production is based on biotechnological fermentative processes using yeasts. It is used essentially in nutrition and pharmaceutical fields. However, due to its still high price, the use of erythritol is not widespread and is lower than that of other polyols. The use of erythritol for polymer synthesis remains largely unexplored by the scientific community. This work describes the synthesis and characterization of polyester, poly (erythritol sebacate) (PES), obtained by thermal polycondensation of erythritol and sebacic acid in a two steps approach. A prepolymerization step was realized at different temperatures (150 degrees C, 160 degrees C and 170 degrees C, respectively) followed by a cure step at 150 degrees C. It was found that using a higher temperature allows the same degree of polymerization (50%) to be achieved in a shorter period, but this leads to prepolymers with a more heterogeneous oligomeric composition. This is reflected in the final properties of the polymers after curing. Synthesis at 150 degrees C produced a polymer with superior mechanical performance (ultimate tensile strength: 0.5 MPa; Young's modulus: 0.44 MPa: elongation at break: 123%) and higher chemical resistance to solvents than polymers synthesized at 160 degrees C and 170 degrees C. The glass transition temperature (Tg) is between - 20 and 0 degrees C for all polymers and density is 1.08 g/cm3. Based on these results, we believe that PES is a good elastomer with tunable properties and potential for selective absorption of molecules, such as ethanol, that could be useful for beverage industry and biotechnological applications.
keywords
POLY(GLYCEROL; ELASTOMERS
subject category
Engineering; Polymer Science
authors
Godinho, B; Smarandache, D; Ionescu, C; Cioatera, N; Ferreira, A; Gama, N
our authors
Artur Jorge Faria Ferreira
Professor Coordinator
Bruno Miguel Marques Godinho
Researcher
Nuno Vasco da Costa Gama Batista de Melo
Junior Researcheracknowledgements
Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on).