Synthesis and nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of biodegradable poly(ethylene terephthalate‐co‐ethylene succinate)s

ABSTRACT In the current work, a series of biodegradable poly(ethylene terephthalate‐co‐ethylene succinate)s (P[ET‐co‐ES]s) were prepared via a traditional melting polycondensation method. First of all, the structures of prepared copolymers were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared measurements. Meanwhile, the thermal properties of prepared samples were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis measurements, respectively. Subsequently, the mechanical properties of the P(ET‐co‐ES)s were evaluated, the tensile strength of P(ET‐co‐ES)s decreased with increasing of PES content in copolymer, however, corresponding P(ET‐co‐ES)s exhibited better elongation at break. Next, the biodegradability of P(ET‐co‐ES)s was evaluated using lipase as degrading enzyme. The results presented that the biodegradability of P(ET‐co‐ES)s improved with PES content, the corresponding results were supported by scanning electron microscopy test. Finally, the Mo's modified Avrami equation was employed to analyze the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of prepared copolymers. The results showed the addition of the PES component improved the crystallization properties of the prepared P(ET‐co‐ES)s. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48422. Synthesis and degradation of P(ET‐co‐ES)