Microstructural organization of polydimethylsiloxane soft segment polyurethanes derived from a single macrodiol

Segmented polyurethane (PU) block copolymers were synthesized using 4,4'-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate and 1,4-butanediol as hard segments and oligomeric ethoxypropyl polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the soft segments, with hard segment contents ranging from 26 to 52 wt% The microphase separated morphology, phase transitions, and degrees of phase separation of these novel copolymers were investigated using a variety of experimental methods. Like similar copolymers with mixed ethoxypropyl PDMS/poly(hexamethylene oxide) soft segments, PU copolymers containing only ethoxypropyl PDMS soft segments were found to consist of three microphases a PDMS matrix phase, hard domains, and a mixed phase containing ethoxypropyl end group segments and dissolved short hard segments Analysis of unlike segment demixing using small-angle X-ray scattering demonstrates that degrees of phase separation increase significantly as copolymer hard segment content increases, in keeping with findings from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved