Transesterification in poly(ethylene terephthalate) and poly(ethylene naphthalate 2,6-dicarboxylate) blends: model compounds study

Kinetics of transesterification reaction in poly(ethylene terephthalate)–poly(ethylene naphthalate 2,6-dicarboxylate), PET–PEN, blends resulting from melt processing was simulated using model compounds of ethylene dibenzoate (BEB) and ethylene dinaphthoate (NEN). The exchange reaction between BEB and NEN was followed by 1H NMR spectroscopy using signals from the aliphatic protons of ethylene glycol moieties at 4.66 and 4.78 ppm, respectively. The first-order kinetics was established under pseudo-first-order conditions for both reactants. Thus, the overall transesterification reaction was second order reversible. The reversibility was confirmed experimentally by heating a mixed sequence of 1-benzoate 2-naphthoate ethylene (BEN) under similar conditions. Both forward reaction of the equimolar amounts of the reagents and reverse reaction came to equilibrium at the same molar ratio of the reactants and reaction products of roughly 0.25:0.50:0.25 for BEB, BEN, and NEN, respectively. The rate equation for the transesterification reaction in the model system was modified using half-concentration of BEN, which is the only effective in the intermolecular exchange. Direct ester–ester exchange was deduced as a prevailing mechanism for the transesterification reaction under the conditions studied, and the values of equilibrium and rate constants, as well as other basic thermodynamic and kinetic parameters were determined. The use of Zn(OAc)2 as a catalyst resulted in a significant decrease in the activation enthalpy of transesterification, which might be due to the partial switch of the reaction mechanism from primarily pseudo-homolytic to more heterolytic where ZnII acts as a Lewis base which binds to the ester carbonyl oxygen.