Bio-based poly(pentamethylene sebacamide) by solid-state polymerization from bio-based monomers

Abstract

Solid-state polymerization (SSP) of biobased monomers, biocadaverine and biosebacic acid was carried out for large-scale synthesis of bio-PA510 as an ecofriendly bioplastic having low water absorption and high oxygen barrier properties. The polymers obtained via SSP for 5 hours at 190 °C in vacuo exhibited a relative viscosity (RV) of 3.1 for particles with a size of 1.0–1.7 mm. The SSP of bio-PA510 developed in this study circumvents the problems encountered when scaling up conventional melt polymerization methods, such as polymer discoloring and discharging. Interestingly, bio-PA510 exhibits low water absorption (0.18%) and low oxygen permeability (1.47 cc mm m⁻² day) compared to other long chain polyamides such as poly(hexamethylene dodecanediamide) (PA612) (0.39%, 6.77 cc mm m⁻² day), which render bio-PA510 a promising candidate for food packaging applications.