Microphase separation and thermo-mechanical properties of energetic poly(urethane–urea)

Effect of diacylhydrazine as chain extender on microphase separation and performance of energetic polyurethane elastomer

It is low cost and feasible to improve the mechanical properties of polyurethane by using the chain extender with hydrogen bonding function to improve the degree of microphase separation. In this article, hydrazine hydrate was used to react with ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate, respectively, to synthesize diacylhydrazines as the polyurethane chain extender with amide bonds, which were characterized by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance. Polyurethane with different contents of hard segment were prepared from poly-3,3-bis(azidomethyl)oxetane-tetrahydrofuran as the polyol and 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate as the isocyanate components. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that with the increase of the hard segment content, the proportion of hydrogen-bonded ordered carbonyl group increased to 94%, proving that diacylhydrazines could improve the degree of ordered hydrogen bonding, which led to clear microphase separation observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy and higher storage modulus of the polyurethane. Differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis showed that polyurethane with higher hard segment content is likely to exhibit multiple thermal transitions caused by microphase separation. When the hard segment content was 40%, compared with polyurethane with 1,4-butanediol as the chain extender, the tensile strengths of polyurethanes with diacylhydrazines also improved by 30% and 76%, respectively.