Polyesteramides producers

Scheme 11.4 A polyesteramide produced by polymerization of adipic acid, 1,4-butanediol, and E-caprolactam.

This is often a convenient route to produce polyesteramides. 

Some 50 years later, in the 1990s Bayer produced their BAK polyesteramides by co-reacting either hexamethylene diamine or e-caprolactam with adipic acid and butane glycol. These materials do have sufficient regularity to be crystallisable and are of interest as biodegradable plastics and are discussed further in Chapter 31. 

FI- and FD-MS are truly "soft" ionization methods, with little excess energy being deposited into the ions that are formed. In a recent study some labile, low molecular weight polyesteramides were analyzed by FD-MS, electrospray (ESI-MS), and MALDI-MS—all of which are techniques that produce high abundances of molecular or quasimolecular ions. In this study ESI-MS was found to be the "softest" method (i.e., the one showing the least ion fragmentation and sample decomposition) FD-MS finished second, and MALDI-MS was third. 

Mixing in monomers with more than two functional groups results in cross-linkage, which increases the hardness of the polycondensates. Three-dimensional cross-linking is also possible with polyester resins in which monomers with double bonds such as maleic acid are used. The polyester produced in this way can subsequently be cross-linked with peroxides, resulting in a duroplastic. In addition to polycondensates wifli a uniform chain structure, mixed polycondensates can also be produced. Polyesteramides are one example, in production of which dicarboxylic acids are converted with diols and diamines. 

Blends or composites materials have been produced by the processing of starch with biodegradable polymers such as poly(s-caprolactone), pofy(lactic acid), pofy(virtyl alcohol), pofy(ltydroxybutyrate-co-valerate), and polyesteramide. The most common are Mater-Bi from Novamorrt arrd Ecostar from Natiortal Starch. 

Biodegradable polymers can also be produced from petroleum sources and are comprised of aliphatic polyesters and copolyesters (e.g., PBS, and poly(butylene succinate adipate)—PBSA), aromatic copolyesters (e.g., poly(butylene adipate terephthalate)—PBAT), poly(e-caprolactone) PCL, polyesteramides (PEA), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Further details concerning the synthesis of these polymers can be found in the book by Rudnik (2008). In this section we summarize some of the key properties of these materials... 

---