New segmented poly(ester-urethane)s from renewable resources

The phys. and mech. properties of aliph. polyesters from monomers obtainable from renewable resources, namely, 1,\u200b3-\u200bpropanediol and succinic acid, were improved by their combination with arom. urethane segments capable of establishing strong intermol. hydrogen bonds. Segmented poly(ester-\u200burethanes) were synthesized from dihydroxy-\u200bterminated oligo(propylene succinate) chain-\u200bextended with MDI. The newly synthesized materials were exhaustively characterized by 1H NMR spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatog., differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mech. anal., and with respect to their main static mech. properties, an Instron app. was used. The av. repeat no. of the hard segments, evaluated by NMR, ranged from 4 to 9, whereas that of the flexible segments was about 14. The degree of crystallinity, glass-\u200btransition temp., m.p., tensile strength, elongation, and Young's modulus were influenced by the ratio between hard and soft segments of the segmented copolymer in a predictable way. The results demonstrated that poly(ester-\u200burethanes) from 1,\u200b3-\u200bpropanediol and succinic acid are promising thermoplastics