Separation and Identification of Cyclic Oligomers in Poly (trimethylene terephthalate)

The NMR and MS techniques were applied to identification and quantitative analysis of oligomers in a commercialized poly (trimethylene terephthalate). Oligomers in a commercialized poly (trimethylene terephthalate) were extracted via a dissolving and reprecipitation method. Analysis of the components of the extract using NMR and MS revealed that it contained mainly cyclic oligomers with degrees of polymerization of 2, 4 and 5 (dimer, tetramer and pentamer). Trimer and cyclic oligomers with degrees of polymerization of more than 6 were not found in the extract in the present study. Quantitative analysis of dimer was performed by NMR spectroscopy.