A Novel Semiaromatic Polyamide Thermoplastic Elastomer with Excellent Heat Resistance and Mechanical Properties

Thermoplastic polyamide elastomers (TPAEs) have received increasing attention due to their excellent mechanical, heat, and abrasion resistance properties. In this study, a series of novel and high-performance PAPXD14/1214-PTMG elastomers were synthesized using polyamide hard segments with an aromatic ring structure and polyether soft segments. The properties of PAPXD14/1214-PTMG elastomers can be regulated by changing the aromatic ring ratio and the hard segment content. Their structure, heat resistance, and mechanical properties were systematically investigated. It is found that the tensile strength, Young's modulus, and Vicat softening temperature (VST) of PAPXD14/1214-PTMG elastomers increase with the increase of hard segment content. Meanwhile, when the content of benzene rings is 80% in the hard segment (TPAE-8:2), the elastomer shows the best comprehensive performance. The tensile strength of TPAE-8:2-61% (hard segment content is 61%) is up to 41.1 MPa, and the Young's modulus is 111.6 MPa, which are much superior values to those of the commercial Pebax@5533 (tensile strength, 26.1 MPa; Young's modulus, 75.2 MPa). Especially, the VST and Tm of TPAE-8:2-50% are 61.7 and 64.5 °C higher than those of Pebax@4033, respectively. This demonstrated that the as-synthesized PAPXD14/1214-PTMG elastomers have obvious advantages in mechanical properties and heat resistance, thus giving them the potential to be widely used in various industrial fields.