Modification of poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) with aliphatic polycarbonate diols: 1. Randomnized copolymers with significantly improved ductility and high CO2 barrier performance

[Display omitted] •PEF copolymers were synthesized in the presence of an aliphatic polycarbonate diol, PPeHC.•The materials were “randomnized” and amorphous due to ester-carbonate exchange reaction.•The material properties can be tuned from thermoplastics to elastomers with the composition.•The thermoplastics possess PET-comparable mechanical but better CO2 barrier properties.•The thermoplastic elastomers possess excellent gas barrier performance as well as high strength. Poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF) is a very promising biobased polymer possessing very high mechanical strength, rigidity and gas barrier performance. But its poor ductility and toughness may limit its applications. In this study, PEF-based copolymers with high intrinsic viscosity were successfully synthesized via melt polycondensation of dimethyl 2,5-furandicarboxylate (DMFD) and ethylene glycol in the presence of a copolycarbonate diol (PPeHC diol) as produced from 1,5-pentylene diol (PeDO), 1,6-hexylene diol (HDO) and dimethyl carbonate, and characterized with 1H NMR, 13C NMR, DSC, TGA, tensile, impact and gas barrier testing. The products were “randomnized” as a result of ester-carbonate exchange reaction occurring along melt polycondensation, and therefore became amorphous copolymers possessing composition-dependent physico-mechanical properties which can be tunable from rigid-to-ductile thermoplastics to thermoplastic elastomers. Particularily, the copolymers with φPPeHC of 25 wt% and 30 wt% are thermoplastics possessing greatly improved ductility (elongation at break up to 194%) and CO2 barrier performance higher than poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET; BIFCO2 3.6–2.8), and retaining high tensile modulus (2.2–1.9 GPa) and yielding strength (69–58 MPa) comparable to the bottle-grade PET. In comparison, the copolymer with φPPeHC of 40 wt% behaves as a high performance thermoplastic elastomer with excellent gas barrier performance as well as high tensile strength (23 MPa).