Mechanical, Thermal and Morphology Properties of Thermoplastic Polyurethane Copolymers Incorporating α,ω-Dihydroxy-[poly(propyleneoxide)-poly (dimethylsiloxane)-poly(propyleneoxide)] of Varying Poly(propyleneoxide) Molecular Weight

Novel segmented thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) copolymers were synthesized using two-step solventless bulk polymerization. 4,4’-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and 1,4-Butanediol (BDO) were used to form hard segment of TPU and α,ω-dihydroxy-[poly(propyleneoxide)-poly (dimethylsiloxane)-poly(propyleneoxide)] (α,ω-dihydroxy-(PPO-PDMS-PPO)) was used to form soft segment of TPU, where the molar ratio of the –N=C=O/OH was 1.02 and the hard segment weight percentage was 30%. A series of TPUs were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The investigation of triblock oligomer’s PPO molecular weight impact on the derived TPU’s mechanical properties, thermal performance, surface water repellency and morphology performance was carried by Instron material tester, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), water contact angles (WCA), scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), respectively. FT-IR confirmed α,ω-dihydroxy-(PPO-PDMS-PPO) well cooperating into urethane structure and analyzed hydrogen bonding between N-H group with hard segment C=O group and N-H group with soft segment C-O-C group. DSC and WAXD results showed α,ω-dihydroxy-(PPO-PDMS-