The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Research on bio-based alternatives to plastics has improved due to their detrimental effects on the environment. The environmental drawbacks of traditional plastics have prompted increased focus on researching bio-based alternatives. As a bicyclic monomer, camphor-incorporated diester is introduced in the synthesis of bio-based polyesters. We report a two-step melt polymerization method for aliphatic polyester, using a novel designed diester monomer to produce poly(hexylene terephthalate camphor dimethyl tartrate). The structure of the copolymer was validated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR), successful synthesis. The estimation of molecular weight and their distribution was conducted through high-temperature gel permeation chromatography (HT-GPC). To evaluate thermal performance, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was employed to analyze the thermal behavior of the novel copolymers, offering valuable information on their thermal stability and degradation behavior.