(530f) Equilibrium Water Sorption in Poly(ethylene furanoate) Compared to Poly(ethylene terephthalate)
AIChE Annual Meeting
2014
2014 AIChE Annual Meeting
Materials Engineering and Sciences Division
Structure and Properties in Polymers
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - 2:00pm to 2:15pm
Recent introduction of poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF), which is a bio-based, performance-enhanced furanic analog to poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), has sparked widespread investigation into previously un-reported fundamental properties of this polymer. The current work examines equilibrium water sorption properties in amorphous PEF and PET at 35°C over the entire water activity range. PEF exhibits a largely increased equilibrium water sorption uptake of ~1.7X compared to PET at unit activity, resulting from substitution of the non-polar phenyl ring in PET with the polar furan ring in PEF. Both polyesters exhibit dual-mode sorption up to ~0.6 activity, after which deviation is observed via a noticeable upturn in concentration vs. activity for both polyesters. Excellent agreement is found between three independent sorption measurement techniques, thereby providing a consistency check for the reported data. Supplementary characterization techniques are utilized to provide a more detailed understanding of the morphological changes induced by the increased sorption at unit activity.