Oral Presentation 5-06

 

Isosorbide – A New Bio-Based Monomer Enhances the Value of Polymers

 

Dennis Magyar

 

DuPont

 

Isosorbide results from the dehydration reaction of sorbitol, which is directly derived from Glucose. Glucose is obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of starch extracted from corn. Isosorbide is a diol produced from yearly renewable materials.

 

Isosorbide can act as a partial substitute for other diols including ethylene glycol, for instance in the PET manufacturing process. In this case, Isosorbide notably improves the thermal stability by conferring a higher glass transition temperature to the polymer.

 

Production of Polyethylene Isosorbide Terephthalate “PEIT” utilizes current polyester production technology.

 

This monomer enhances the material’s performance in a variety of demanding applications where conventional polyester simply can not do the job. PEIT will provide value to numerous market segments like PET rigid containers for hot-fill applications and thermoplastics where higher temperature performance is required.

 

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