Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, 2016, vol 54, 24, pp. 2485-2493
DOI:10.1002/polb.24243
Abstract
Morphology and tensile properties of model thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) containing polyisobutylene (PIB) or poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTMO) based soft segment and 4,4-methylene bis(phenyl isocyanate) (MDI) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) based monodisperse hard segments (HSs), consisting of exactly two to four MDI units extended by BDO, were investigated. Using FT-IR spectroscopy, increased hydrogen bonded CO fraction was observed in model TPUs as the HS size increased. The hydrogen bonded CO fraction was higher in PIB based TPUs compared with PTMO based TPUs, indicating higher phase separation in PIB based TPUs. The morphology of TPUs was investigated using AFM phase imaging, which showed ribbon-like or interconnected hard domains in PTMO based model TPUs and randomly dispersed hard domains in PIB based model TPUs. SAXS revealed that the degree of phase separation in the model TPUs was higher than in their polydisperse analogues. Domain spacing as well as interfacial thickness increased with the increasing HS size, and both values were higher in PTMO based TPUs. The tensile analysis indicated that model TPUs exhibited higher modulus and slightly higher elongation compared with their polydisperse analogues. Only in PTMO based model TPUs, strain induced crystallization was observed above 300% elongation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 2485–2493
