Isothermal Crystallization Kinetics of Poly (Ethylene 2,5‐Furandicarboxylate)

Abstract

Poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF) is a polyester from ethylene glycol and 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid which has gained increasing interest due to its excellent properties compared to chemically similar PET. This paper presents an estimation of the crystallization enthalpy, the crystalline and amorphous density and the crystallization kinetics of PEF. Using Avrami and the Hoffman-Lauritzen theory, HoffmanLauritzen parameters are proposed that relate crystal growth rate of catalyst-free PEF to temperature and molecular weight. Characteristic is a higher activation energy for chain diffusion (U*) for PEF compared PET, which can be attributed to more restricted chain conformational changes. Finally, the crystallization rate of PEF is shown to be significantly affected by catalyst type.

Isothermal crystallization and structural characterization of poly(ethylene-2,5-furanoate)

“…They also reported the occurrence of multiple melting behavior during heating of semi-crystalline PEF which they attribute to a melting recrystallization process. The same observations and interpretations were reported by van Berkel et al [11].…”

“…Regarding the crystallography of PEF, only an early work by Kazaryan et al reports a triclinic unit cell for PEF [15]. Diffraction patterns of semi-crystalline PEF have been also reported by several authors [3,11,13,15]. To our knowledge only one type of diffraction pattern has been reported for PEF up to now meaning that only one crystalline phase has been actually encountered.…”

“…Eerhart et al have shown that PEF production would reduce the non-renewable energy use by 40%e50% and the Greenhouse gas emissions by 45%e 55%, as compared to PET. Synthesis of PEF at lab-scale has been studied by various researchers [2,5e8], while industrial approaches to synthesize high molecular weight PEF have also been proposed [6,10,11]. The diacid monomer in PEF, furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid or FDCA, can be obtained via different routes from C6 sugars, while biobased mono-ethylene glycol or MEG is already established on a large scale.…”

Modification of poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) with 1,4-cyclohexanedimethylene: Influence of composition on mechanical and barrier properties

“…Obviously, the crystallizability of PEF (∆H m =0.9J/g, T m =211.9 o C) was much lower than that of PET, which was attributed to the restricted chain conformational changes [31]. For PECF-15 and PECF-32, neither crystallization peak in the cooling scan nor cold crystallization in the second heating scan could be observed, due to the fact that a small amount of CF unit destroyed the chains' regularity and led to a very poor crystallizability.…”

“…However, PEF is brittle with the elongation at break of only 5%, and weak crystallization ability compared with PET [30][31], which significantly hinders its industry application. In order to improve its toughness and crystallization ability, 1,4-butanediol was employed to replace ethylene glycol (EG) and PBF was synthesized, which showed better crystallization ability and significantly increased elongation at break of 1000%.…”