Oxygen sorption and transport in amorphous poly(ethylene furanoate)

•O2 transport in poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) was studied at various temperatures.•Permeation and pressure-decay sorption methods provide complementary data.•PEF exhibits 11× lower O2 permeability vs. poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET).•Transport energetics are reported for O2 sorption, diffusion and permeation in PEF.•The current work is the first detailed study of penetrant transport in PEF.

Oxygen transport in amorphous poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) was studied at various temperatures using complementary permeation and pressure-decay sorption techniques. A significant reduction in oxygen permeability of ∼11× was observed at 35 °C for PEF compared to poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and is attributed primarily to reduction in chain segment mobility for PEF resulting from a hindrance of furan ring flipping. A custom-built high accuracy sorption system allowed determination of temperature-dependent so-called dual-mode parameters that have not been reported for oxygen in any polyester. Energetic parameters, i.e. the enthalpy of sorption and activation energies of diffusion and permeation, were measured for oxygen in PEF and discussed in the context of PET and related polyesters. The current work presents the first detailed study of penetrant transport in PEF, which demonstrates the impressive performance enhancements of PEF compared to PET.

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