Achieving Simultaneous High Thermal Stability and Rapid Seawater Degradation in Poly(butylene succinate-<italic style="font-style: italic">co</italic>-glycolide) Copolyesters

Yu-Hao Wang; Jie Wang; Shi-Hong Gong; Dian-Hao Li; Bao-Jun Luo; Chao Wei; Chun-Lei Zhang

doi:10.1007/s10118-025-3535-z

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Achieving Simultaneous High Thermal Stability and Rapid Seawater Degradation in Poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) Copolyesters

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-02-13

- Achieving Simultaneous High Thermal Stability and Rapid Seawater Degradation in Poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) Copolyesters
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Issue 3, Pages: 653-663(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  b.Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Green Energy Chemical Engineering, Shanghai 200234, China
- Author bio：
  
  weichao107@shnu.edu.cn (C.W.)
  zhangchunlei@shnu.edu.cn (C.L.Z.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3535-z
  CLC：
- Received：19 October 2025，
  
  Accepted：16 December 2025，
  
  Online First：06 February 2026，
  
  Published：15 March 2026
- Accepted：
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Wang, Y. H.; Wang, J.; Gong, S. H.; Li, D. H.; Luo, B. J.; Wei, C.; Zhang, C. L. Achieving simultaneous high thermal stability and rapid seawater degradation in poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) copolyesters. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 653–663

Yu-Hao Wang, Jie Wang, Shi-Hong Gong, et al. Achieving Simultaneous High Thermal Stability and Rapid Seawater Degradation in Poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) Copolyesters[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(3): 653-663. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3535-z.
Wang, Y. H.; Wang, J.; Gong, S. H.; Li, D. H.; Luo, B. J.; Wei, C.; Zhang, C. L. Achieving simultaneous high thermal stability and rapid seawater degradation in poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) copolyesters. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 653–663 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3535-z.

Yu-Hao Wang, Jie Wang, Shi-Hong Gong, et al. Achieving Simultaneous High Thermal Stability and Rapid Seawater Degradation in Poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) Copolyesters[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(3): 653-663. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3535-z. DOI：

摘要

Here

a mild ring-opening copolymerization strategy for the efficient synthesis of high molecular weight poly(butylene succinate-

-glycolate) (PBSGL) copolymers with narrow dispersion and controllable sequence structure was reported

and PBSGL possesses high thermal stability and rapid degradation in seawater.

Abstract

Ocean-degradable polyesters incorporating hydrophilic and rapidly degradable glycolide (GL) units into the polymer chain are the most promising for addressing marine plastic pollution

however

it is challenging to obtain high-molecular-weight copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions. Herein

we prepared a novel biodegradable material

poly(butylene succinate-

-glycolide) (PBSGL)

through ring-opening copolymerization using glycolide

succinic anhydride

and 1

4-butanediol as raw materials

providing a new solution strategy for marine pollution. GL could be polymerized according to the pre-designed composition by

H-nuclear magnetic resonance (

H-NMR) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) results

indicating controlled polymerization with the synthesized PBSGLs having a weight-average molecular weight of up to 12.30×10

g/mol and a narrow molecular weight distribution (1.33–1.65). Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed that

of PBSGLs increased from –32.5 °C to –26.5 °C with the increase of GL content from 0% to 40%

while

(

76 °C) was much lower than

(

314 °C)

which indicated that PBSGLs had good thermal stability and expanded the processing window and application range of the original poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) materials. Under simulated difficult conditions

PBSGL copolyesters could degrade faster with increasing GL content

where PBSGL40 degraded by 22.6% in 12 days

showing good biodegradability. Currently

most biodegradable polyesters with good performance slowly degrade in seawater. In a 30-d

ay artificial seawater degradation test

the amorphous PBSGL40 copolyester showed a about 15-fold (2.33% weight loss) improvement in degradation ability compared to pure PBS

demonstrating rapid seawater degradation capability.

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Achieving Simultaneous High Thermal Stability and Rapid Seawater Degradation in Poly(butylene succinate-co-glycolide) Copolyesters

DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3535-z

摘要

Abstract

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