Controlling the stereostructure of non‐planar ring to induce the transition from plastic to elastomer in poly(butylene adipate‐co‐1,4‐cyclohexane dicarboxylate) and implement of polylactic acid toughness

The controllable polyesters with high overall performance are obtained by tuning the stereostructure of 1,4‐cyclohexylene ring moieties (CHRMs) in poly(butylene adipate‐ co −1,4‐cyclohexanedicarboxylate) (PBAC). After increasing the number of irregular cis ‐CHRMs in the polyester, PBAC can transform from semicrystalline polymer to amorphous one. PBAC with 58% cis ‐CHRMs starts to exhibit good elasticity with shape recovery of 60% at 250% deformation, indicating the transition from plastic to thermoplastic elastomer. Through blending with polylactic acid (PLA), the elastic PBAC greatly enhances the impact strength of PLA to 7.5 kJ/m 2 . While the tensile elongation at break is dramatically improved to 161% with the addition of plastic PBAC. The mechanism related to the stereostructure of non‐planar ring of PBAC on the properties of PLA is also analyzed. Therefore, this research suggests a particular way to build non‐planar ring contained polyesters to modify PLA with high toughness. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 57:1277–1284, 2017. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers