Synthesis and properties of cyclic diester based aliphatic copolyesters

Abstract Melt polycondensation was used to prepare a systematic series of random and amorphous copolyesters using the following cycloaliphatic diesters: dimethyl‐1,4‐cyclohexane dicarboxylate (DMCD), dimethyl bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane‐1,4‐dicarboxylate (DMCD‐1), dimethyl bicyclo[2.2.2]octane‐1,4‐dicarboxylate (DMCD‐2), dimethyl bicyclo[3.2.2]nonane‐1,5‐dicarboxylate (DMCD‐3), 1,4‐dimethoxycarbonyl‐1,4‐dimethylcyclohexane (DMCD‐M) and the aliphatic diols: ethylene glycol (EG) and 1,4‐cyclohexane dimethanol (CHDM). The polymer compositions were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and the molecular weights were determined using size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The polyesters were characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The copolyester based on DMCD‐2 was observed to have a higher glass transition temperature (Tg up to 115 °C) than the other copolyesters of this study. For poly[x(DMCD‐2)y(DMCD) 30(EG)70(CHDM)], Tg increases linearly with increase of DMCD‐2 mole content. DMA showed that all of the cycloaliphatic copolyesters have secondary relaxations, resulting from the conformational transitions of the cyclohexylene rings. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 2162–2169, 2010