One-step facile pathway synthesis of PAPXD/1214-PEA thermoplastic elastomer: structure and properties

In this study, a novel and facile one-step synthesis route was conducted to prepare semi-aromatic polyamide elastomer (PAPXD/1214-PEA) with p-phenylenediamine, dodecane diamine, dodecanedioic acid and polyether amine (PEA) as monomers. A systematic investigation has been conducted into the effect of hard segment content on the thermal, mechanical and solvent resistance of polymers when semi-aromatic polyamides are used as hard segments. It was found that the melting point of the copolymers gradually increased from 191.2 oC to 231.5 oC with the hard segment content increased from 39% to 76%, while the Vicat softening temperature (VST) enhanced from 103.2 oC to 192.2 oC. Compared with the commercial polyamide elastomer Pebax@ (produced by Arkema Inc) with similar hard segment contents, the VST of PAPXD14/1214-PEA were 17.4-66.2 oC higher. The mechanical performance of these elastomers was also largely improved with tensile strength increasing from 15.1 to 40.6 MPa, Young's modulus from 28.2 to 168.7 MPa, toughness from 91.1 to 170.7 MJ/m3. In addition, the solvent resistance properties of PAPXD14/1214-PEA was compared with the commercial polyamide elastomer Pebax@. After soaking in hydrochloric acid for 24 h, the tensile strength of PAPXD/1214-PEA with the hard segment content increased from 50% to 63% decreased down to 9.4 and 14.4 MPa, respectively. While the commercial polyamide elastomer Pebax@ (with similar hard segment content) decreased down to 1.5 and 4.3 MPa, indicating the commercial polyamide elastomer products were deteriorated. This suggests the corrosion resistance of the synthesized PAPXD/1214-PEA is much better than that of commercial product, and these semi-aromatic polyamide elastomers can be potentially applied in some harsh service environment especially for high temperature and corrosion sealing.