TY - JOUR A1 - Soulis, S. A1 - Triantou, D. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Falkenhagen, Jana A1 - Simitzis, J. T1 - Structural analysis of biodegradable low-molecular mass copolyesters based on glycolic acid, adipic acid and 1,4 butanediol and correlation with their hydrolytic degradation N2 - Copolyesters of glycolic acid combined with adipic acid and 1,4 butanediol were synthesized, their in vitro hydrolytic degradation was studied and correlated with their structure. The hydrolytic degradation of the copolyesters was directly related with the degree of crystallinity and the diameter of the crystallites. It was found that glycolate units disturb the ordering of the butylene adipate units, which results in a decrease of the crystallinity. By comparing the hydrolysis parameters of synthesized copolyesters with those of similar aliphatic copolyesters a hydrolysis mechanism was proposed. According to this mechanism, the degradation takes place not only by the loss of end units, but also through the removal of larger segments. MALDI-TOF MS data showed that the possibility of a copolyester macromolecule forming cyclic structures correlates with the arrangement of ester groups in the macromolecules and the structure of the linear segments. KW - Biodegradable KW - Biopolymers KW - Hydrolytic degradation KW - Ft-IR KW - Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry KW - MALDI-TOF-MS PY - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2012.09.002 SN - 0141-3910 SN - 1873-2321 VL - 97 IS - 11 SP - 2091 EP - 2103 PB - Applied Science Publ. CY - London AN - OPUS4-26723 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chatti, S. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Fildier, A. A1 - Kricheldorf, H.R. T1 - Copolyesters of isosorbide, succinic acid, and isophthalic acid: biodegradable, high Tg engineering plastics N2 - Isosorbide, succinyl chloride and isophthaloyl chloride are polycondensed under various reaction conditions. The heating in bulk with or without catalysts as well in an aromatic solvent without catalyst, and polycondensation with the addition of pyridine only yield low molar mass copolyesters. However, heating in chlorobenzene with addition of SnCl2 or ZnCl2 produces satisfactory molar masses. The number average molecular weights (Mn) of most copolyesters fall into the range of 7000–15,000 Da with polydispersities (PD) in the range of 3–9. The MALDI-TOF mass spectra almost exclusively displayed peaks of cyclics indicating that the chain growth was mainly limited by cyclization and not by side reactions, stoichiometric imbalance or incomplete conversion. The glass-transition temperatures increased with the content of isophthalic acid from 75 to 180 °C and the thermo-stabilities also followed this trend. KW - Biodegradable KW - Cyclization KW - Cyclopolymerization KW - Isophthalic acid KW - Isosorbide KW - Polycondensation KW - Polyesters KW - Renewable resources KW - Succinic acid PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pola.26635 SN - 0360-6376 SN - 0887-624X VL - 51 IS - 11 SP - 2464 EP - 2471 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken, NJ AN - OPUS4-28577 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -