Godlewska Julia, Smorawska Joanna, Głowińska Ewa
Department of Polymers Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 Gabriel Narutowicza Street, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland.
Molecules. 2024 Jul 30;29(15):3585. doi: 10.3390/molecules29153585.
Aging of polymers is a natural process that occurs during their usage and storage. Predicting the lifetime of polymers is a crucial aspect that should be considered at the design stage. In this paper, a series of bio-based thermoplastic poly(ether-urethane) elastomers (bio-TPUs) with modified hard segments were synthesized and investigated to understand the structural and property changes triggered by accelerated aging. The bio-TPUs were synthesized at an equimolar ratio of reagents using the prepolymer method with the use of bio-based poly(trimethylene ether) glycol, bio-based 1,3-propanediol, and hexamethylene diisocyanate or hexamethylene diisocyanate/partially bio-based diisocyanate mixtures. The polymerization reaction was catalyzed by dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTDL). The structural and property changes after accelerated aging under thermal and hydrothermal conditions were determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). Among other findings, it was observed that both the reference and aged bio-TPUs decomposed in two main stages and exhibited thermal stability up to approximately 300 °C. Based on the research conducted, it was found that accelerated aging impacts the supramolecular structure of TPUs.
聚合物的老化是其在使用和储存过程中发生的自然过程。预测聚合物的寿命是设计阶段应考虑的关键方面。本文合成并研究了一系列具有改性硬段的生物基热塑性聚（醚 - 聚氨酯）弹性体（生物TPU），以了解加速老化引发的结构和性能变化。生物TPU采用预聚物法，以等摩尔比的试剂合成，使用生物基聚（三亚甲基醚）二醇、生物基1,3 - 丙二醇和六亚甲基二异氰酸酯或六亚甲基二异氰酸酯/部分生物基二异氰酸酯混合物。聚合反应由二月桂酸二丁基锡（DBTDL）催化。使用傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、差示扫描量热法（DSC）、热重分析（TGA）和动态热机械分析（DMTA）测定了热和水热条件下加速老化后的结构和性能变化。在其他发现中，观察到参考和老化的生物TPU均在两个主要阶段分解，并且在高达约300°C时表现出热稳定性。基于所进行的研究，发现加速老化会影响TPU的超分子结构。
