Copolyethersulfones of 1,4: 3,6-dianhydrohexitols and bisphenol A

The synthesis of biosourced copolyethersulfones by polycondensation of 1,4:3,6-dianhydrohexitol monomers and bisphenol A is reported. Structures and properties of these copolymers were investigated in each case. In the first part, the impact of the position of the two hydroxyl groups of isosorbide, isomannide, and isoidide is discussed. In the second part, we focused on improving the cost/thermal properties balance by introducing controlled proportions of bisphenol A as comonomer. The addition of bisphenol A serves two purposes. The first one is to maintain good thermal and mechanical properties of resulting copolymers. The second reason is to insure low-cost route to copolyethersulfones for a potential use in industrial applications. All the products have been fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF spectrometry, and viscosimetry. The thermal properties were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).