Polyetheramine-Type Semi-Biobased Long-Chain Polyamide 1210 Elastomer: Synthesis, Structure, and Unique Thermal Behavior

Biobased thermoplastic polyamide elastomers (TPAEs) have received increasing attention in both academia and industry. Here, a series of semi-biobased long-chain TPAEs are successfully synthesized via one-step melt polymerization, employing polyamide 1210 (PA1210) and polyetheramines (PEAs) as hard and soft segments, respectively. The prepared TPAEs demonstrate excellent mechanical properties, energy dissipation capabilities, low density, good damping, high resilience, and low melting temperature. More interestingly, the properties of the TPAEs can be customized by adjusting the content and molecular weight of PEA. By varying the molecular weights of the PEAs, two different thermal behaviors can be observed in the prepared TPAEs. Specifically, PEA with low molecular weight has good compatibility with PA1210, leading to an increase in the conformation of the crystalline region and a significant decrease in melting temperature. Meanwhile, high molecular weight PEA causes strong phase separation with PA1210, leading to limited crystalline regions and inadequate physical cross-linking, further resulting in suboptimal mechanical properties. This work provides new insights into the design and preparation of PEA-type biobased long-chain TPAEs. A series of semi-biobased long-chain polyamide elastomers (thermoplastic polyamide elastomers (TPAEs)) are synthesized through one-pot melt polymerization using polyamide 1210 and polyetheramine (PEA) as precursors. The prepared TPAEs demonstrate excellent properties, and more interestingly, their thermal behavior shows a unique correlation with the molecular weight of PEA. This discovery allows the development of polyamide elastomers with broader processing capabilities, foaming applications, and customizable properties.image