Poly(ether-ester) multiblock copolymers based on poly(oxymethylene-alt-oxyalkylene) glycols

Polyurethanes having shape memory effects

A series of polyether-based thermoplastic polyure thanes, varying in soft segment molecular weight and hard seg ment content was prepared and studied. Poly(oxypropylene- oxyethylene) diols of Mn of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 were the soft segment polyols. The hard segment, 4,4'-diphenyl methane diisocyanate (MDI) extended with 1,4-butanediol (BDO), and also the soft segment content were varied from 20 to 80 weight percent. Physical-mechanical, thermal (DSC) and dynamic-mechanical property data are used to elucidate the mechanical and morphological behavior of these polymers. Two distinct phases are detected in most of the polymers. The Tg of the amorphous soft phase decreases with increasing polyether molecular weight and is relatively unaffected by soft segment content except at very low levels (≤ 30%). Hard segments appar ently separate into ordered structures which melt between 150 and 220°C. The melting points and the heats of fusion generally increase with hard segment content and soft segment Mn. Soft segment molecular weight also has a significant influence on the mechanical properties of the polymers. In general, the ambient flexural moduli and the dynamic moduli (E') increase with in creasing soft segment Mn and the modulus/temperature curve is flattened.

This article examines the effects of the soft-segment composition on the structure and physical properties of waterborne polyurethane (WBPU) based on polycaprolactone–poly(ethylene glycol)–polycaprolactone (PCL–PEG–PCL) triblock copolydiol as the soft segment. The molecular weight of PEG in the soft-segment composition and soft-segment content (SSC) are varied in this study. The water-vapor permeability (WVP) for the WBPU-coated nylon fabric is also studied. The results showed that the glass transition temperatures (Tg's) of the soft segment decreased and its temperature range (ΔTg's) narrowed with increase of SSC up to 63 wt % and decrease of the PEG molecular weight. The dynamic mechanical analysis results showed that the α-peak height of the soft segment increased with SSC when the SSC was less than 63 wt %. However, when SSC was more than 63 wt %, the α-peak height became smaller with increasing SSC due to the crystallization of the soft segment. At the same SSC, the number of spherulites was reduced and the spherulites become larger with decrease of the PEG molecular weight. As for the mechanical properties of the WBPU cast film, the breaking stress decreased and the breaking elongation increased with increasing SSC or decreasing PEG molecular weight. For the WBPU-coated nylon fabrics, either higher SSC or higher PEG molecular weight improves the WVP. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 65:883–892, 1997

A series of novel thermoplastic elastomers, based on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) as the soft segment and poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) as the hard segment, were synthesized by catalyzed two‐step, melt transesterification reactions of dimethyl terephthalate and methyl esters of carboxypropyl‐terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane)s (M̄n = 550–2170 g mol−1) with 1,4‐butanediol. The lengths of both the hard and soft segments were varied while the weight ratio of the hard to soft segments in the reaction mixture was maintained constant (57/43). The molecular structure, composition and molecular weights of the poly(ester–siloxane)s were examined by 1H NMR spectroscopy. The effectiveness of the incorporation of the methyl‐ester‐terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane)s into the copolymer chains was verified by chloroform extraction. The effect of the segment length on the transition temperatures (Tm and Tg) and the thermal and thermo‐oxidative degradation stability, as well as the degree of crystallinity and hardness properties of the synthesized TPESs, were studied. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry

ABSTRACTIsosorbide, a renewable diol derived from starch, was used alone or in combination with butane diol (BD) as the chain extender in two series of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) with 50 and 70% polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG) soft segment concentration (SSC), respectively. In the synthesized TPUs, the hard segment composition was systematically varied in both series following BD/isosorbide molar ratios of 100 : 0; 75 : 25; 50 : 50; 25 : 75, and 0 : 100 to examine in detail the effect of chain extenders on properties of segmented polyurethane elastomers with different morphologies. We found that polyurethanes with 50% SSC were hard elastomers with Shore D hardness of around 50, which is consistent with assumed co‐continuous morphology. Polymers with 70% SSC displayed lower Shore A hardness of 74–79 (Shore D around 25) as a result of globular hard domains dispersed in the soft matrix. Insertion of isosorbide increased rigidity, melting point and glass transition temperature of hard segments and tensile strength of elastomers with 50% SSC. These effects were weaker or non‐existent in 70% SSC series due to the short hard segments and low content of isosorbide. We also found that the thermal stability was lowered by increasing isosorbide content in both series. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42830.

The phase behavior of a set of high hard block content (50% to 100% hard segment by weight) linear thermoplastic polyurethanes has been investigated mainly via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The soft segment was based on a polypropylene oxide polyol end-capped with ethylene oxide and the hard segment on a 4,4‘-methylene diphenyldiisocyanate (MDI) chain extended by 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol (MP-Diol). By investigating thermal behavior of the samples, it has been possible to assign the observed high-temperature endothermic transitions to the disruption of an ordered structure appearing in the hard phase under certain annealing conditions and to the microphase mixing of the soft and hard segments. These results suggest a two-step melting process: (1) melting of the ordered structure present in the hard phase; (2) microphase mixing of the soft and hard segments. Wide-angle X-ray scattering experiments gave further support to this assignment. In addition, investigation of the melt-quenched samples ha...

Effect of intersegmental interactions on the morphology of segmented polyurethanes with mixed soft segments: A coarse-grained simulation study

Effect of the degree of soft and hard segment ordering on the morphology and mechanical behavior of semicrystalline segmented polyurethanes

The role of hard and soft segments in the thermal and mechanical properties of non-isocyanate polyurethanes produced via polycondensation reaction

Thermal and dynamic mechanical behaviour of calcium containing co-polyurethanes

Novel polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based polyionenes were synthesized by a modified Menschutkin reaction involving reaction between bromo-terminated PDMS oligomers and various ditertiary amino compounds. In this study, the nature of the hard segment was varied by using various ditertiary amino compounds and in some cases by incorporating chain extenders, while the soft segment content was varied by changing the molecular weight of the PDMS oligomers. The mechanical properties of these materials were found to be dependent on both the nature and amount of the hard segments. These materials also showed distinct evidence of a microphase-separated morphology where under normal conditions, the hard segments formed in what are believed to be cylindrical ion-rich microdomains dispersed randomly in the soft PDMS matrix. When subjected to uniaxial deformation, the ionic cylinders were found to orient along their long axes in the stretch direction.

Water-soluble and ultraviolet (UV)-curable urethane acrylate anionomers containing dimethylolpropionic acid (DMPA) were synthesized with varying molecular weight of soft segment and degree of neutralization. The ion group incorporated was confirmed by 1 H-NMR and 13 C-NMR spectra. In viscosity measurements, the enhancement of viscosity was achieved with increasing of ionic strength or pH of the solution. However, when the molecular weight of soft segment was high, the viscosity little changed for given parameters. This indicates that the strong hydrophobic interaction caused by the long soft segment made the anionomer chain aggregate. The UV coating properties of urethane acrylate anionomer films were depended on the molecular weight of soft segment and the degree of neutralization. For the films of high ion content and low molecular weight of soft segment, the tensile strength had a tendency toward increasing, on the contrary, for the films of low ion content and high molecular weight of soft segment, the tensile strength displayed reverse tendency. However, compared with general urethane acrylate films, overall coating properties were significantly improved. This was believed that the ionic groups acted as reinforcing filler by means of the phase separation from the crosslinked urethane acrylate network.

A series of polyurethane networks were prepared from MDI (4,41-diphenyl methane diisocyanate), ethylene glycol and a polyoxyethylene-tipped polyoxypropylene triol. The phase separation and phase inversion phenomena of these polyurethane networks were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and measurement of their tensile properties. The DSC and DMA data indicate that the segmented copolyurethanes possess a two-phase morphology comprising soft and hard segments. It can be found from DSC data that the polyether soft segments exhibit a Tg (glass transition temperature) of −60 °C, and the aromatic hard segments display a Tg of about 128 °C. Two Tgs corresponding to the comprised segments can also be found by DMA for some segmented polyurethanes. Varying the content of aromatic hard segments over the range from 0 to 80 wt% changes the material behavior from a soft rubber through a highly extensible elastomer to a brittle semi-ductile glassy material. Based on the property-composition plots, phase inversion appears to occur at a hard segment content of about 50 wt%.

The thermoplastic polyurethanes are linear segmented copolymers which consist of alternating soft and hard segment units. The soft segment is commonly a low molecular weight polyether or polyester whereas the hard segment generally consists of an aromatic diisocyanate condensed with a low molecular weight diol. It is now generally accepted that the properties of these materials are primarily due to the phase segregation of soft and hard segments leading to the formation of hard segment domains which are dispersed in the rubbery matrix. There are a wide variety of compositional variables which can affect the degree of phase segregation and hard segment organization and, accordingly, the sample properties. In this paper we report the results obtained on an extensive series of polyurethanes based on 2,4-toluene diisocyanate (2,4 TDI) and 2,6-toluene diisocyanate (2,6 TDI). In 2,4 TDI polymers, the asymmetric placement of the isocyanate residues with respect to the methyl group can result in some head-to-tail isomerization in the hard segment. In 2,6 TDI polymers, this problem is absent since the molecule is symmetrical. Other compositional variables examined included polyether vs. polyester soft segment, the molecular weight of the soft segment and the length of hard segment. Extensive physico-chemical techniques such as thermal analysis, wide and low angle x-ray studies and IR spectroscopic analyses have been employed to provide detailed information on the thermal transition behavior, structural organization and the properties.

Compositional and temperature dependence of free volume in segmented copolymer PET/PEO studied by positron annihilation lifetime measurement