Vol.
25 No. 2
March-April 2003
Structure
and Properties of Polyester Elastomers Composed of Poly(butyleneterephthalate)
and Poly(e-caprolactone)
Rubber,
which shows very unique properties of low modulus and high
extensibility, differently from other solids such as metal
and ceramic, is now used in a variety of phases in daily life.
To apply rubber to actual uses, vulcanization (i.e., the introduction
of crosslinks) is needed. The disadvantage of this process
is that rubber is not so high in productivity as well as operability.
Recently, thermoplastic elastomers have been used to improve
the processability of rubber materials, resulting in a major
innovation in the rubber industry as well as in the field
of polymer science. These rubber materials, which have no
need for vulcanization and can be easily recycled, have attracted
great scientific and academic interest. The mechanical performance
of the thermoplastic elastomers is strongly affected by the
higher-order structure of hard segments of the chains. Typically,
the domain is a glassy amorphous phase or a crystalline phase.
Among the several types of thermoplastic elastomers, the polyester-type
elastomers are specifically interesting because the mechanical
properties cover from rubber to plastics, in some cases to
engineering plastics, according to the structure of the crystalline
domain of hard segments. The aim of this project is to make
clear the structure-properties relation of polyester-type
elastomers categorized in "engineering elastomers," composed
of poly(butyleneterephthalate) as the hard segment and poly(e-caprolactone)
or poly(tetramethyleneglycol) as the soft segment. The project
is composed of the following six research topics:
1)
molecular structure
- blockiness/sequence distribution
-
molecular weight/ MW distribution
2)
aggregate structure and deformation mechanism
- POM studies
- SAXS/WAXD studies
- SALS studies
3)
melt rheology
- dynamic viscoelasticity
- stress relaxation
-
shear/elongational viscosities
4)
mechanical properties
- stress-strain relationship
-
elastic recovery/hysteresis
5)
blends with other polymers
6)
degradation
For
more information, contact the Task Group Chairman Toshikazu
Takigawa <takigawa@
rheogate.polym.kyoto-u.ac.jp>.
www.iupac.org/projects/2002/2002-052-1-400.html
Page
last modified 3 March 2003.
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