poly(butylene succinate)

ECTP2014 - 20th European Conference on Thermophysical Properties
Poster P_089, 3 Sept. 15:30 – 19:00
SLOW RELAXATIONS STUDIES IN THE BIODEGRADABLE SEMI-CRYSTALLINE POLYMER:
POLY(BUTYLENE SUCCINATE)
Joaquim J. Moura-Ramos1; Hermínio P. Diogo2
Centro de Química-Física Molecular (CQFM) and Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN), Instituto Superior
Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal;
2Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
*[email protected]
1
Biodegradable polymeric materials are one kind of superior materials showing ecological advantages over other nondegradable plastics and offering alternative solutions for global waste problems (white pollution). Biodegradation of
aliphatic polyesteres is a well-known phenomenon where some bacteria induce degradation trough the production of
enzymes, which attack the polymer and completely decomposed it into H2O and CO2.
Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is a commercially available aliphatic polyester that presents great flexibility, high
elongation at break, good toughness and lower glass transition temperature (Tg ~ -40ºC).As a result of these properties,
PBS finds application in several areas ranging from agricultural (garden films and compostable bags) and eco-friendly
dielectric polymeric materials to drug delivery, artificial implants and tissue engineering [1].
Relaxation properties are very important in polymer processing, and the features of the molecular mobility determine
many physical properties. Among the techniques appropriate to study molecular mobility in very viscous systems,
dynamic mechanical spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) and thermally stimulated
currents (TSC) are the most frequently used. To the best of our knowledge, only a study is published based on the DRS
technique [2] and no TSC investigation on the slow relaxations in PBS is available in the literature. The present
communication reports a study of the slow molecular mobility, in the amorphous part of the semi-crystalline poly
(butylenesuccinate), both below and above the glass transition temperature by the thermally stimulated depolarization
current (TSDC) technique. The thermal behavior of the semi-crystalline PBS sample was observed by DSC.
Figure 1: Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) - trade name ‘BIONOLLE’.
Acknowledgements: Authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Mikihiko Ono (Showa Denko, Tokyo), for the kind gift of the
PBS samples.This work was partially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal (Projects
PESt-OE/QUI/UI0100/2013 and Pest-OE/CTM/LA0024/2013).
[1] Ichikawa, Y., Mizukoshi, T.Bionolle (Polybutylenesuccinate). In Advances in Polymer Science; Rieger, B., Künkel, A.,
Coates, G. W., Reichardt, R., Dinjus, E. and Zevaco, T. A., Eds.; Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg, 2012; pp 285-313.
[2] Tai, H. J., Polymer 2007, 48, 4558-4566.