Poly(ethylene terephthalate) modification with the monomer from renewable resources

An emerging problem related to the development of biodegradable polymers from renewable resources was brought up in this work. Modification of petrochemical-based poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET) with the use of bio-based monomer, namely dilinoleic acid (DLA) was presented. Series of multiblock copolymers containing oligo-PET as hard segments and DLA as soft segments was obtained in typical process of PET synthesis via polycondensation from the melt. PET/DLA copolymers containing W h = 30-90 wt. % of hard segments were characterized with respect to their mechanical, thermal and processing properties. It was demonstrated that at high concentration of DLA (W h = 30-40 wt. %) materials are susceptible to hydrolytic degradation.