Fabrication of Elastic Copolyester by Incorporation of Aliphatic Long-Chain in Poly(1,4-Cyclohexylenedimethylene furanoate)

The widespread use of petroleum-based plastics has resulted in significant environmental and health issues, highlighting the urgent need for biobased high-performance polymers to foster a sustainable future. Biobased elastomeric materials are particularly advancing to improve the performance of biobased polymers. This study seeks to develop environmentally friendly elastomers with properties comparable to those of petroleum-based olefin elastomers while maintaining the advantages of thermoplastic polyesters. Herein, the biobased dodecanedioic acid was introduced to the biobased polyester composed of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol, in order to construct poly(1,4-cyclohexylenedimethylene dodecanedioate-co-furanoate) (PCDF) copolyester with tunable mechanical properties. Notably, PCDF copolyester containing 60% of aliphatic long-chain in its diacid content exhibits an elastic modulus of 52 MPa and an impressive recovery rate of 64% to its original state after stretching to 200% strain. Different from the traditional strategy of using a polyether soft segment to realize elasticity, this study proposed an interesting and simple strategy to fabricate a biobased copolyester with an elastic property by merely using a biobased aliphatic long-chain.