Improving Thermal Stability of Polyurethane through the Addition of Hyperbranched Polysiloxane

Abstract

Polydimethylsiloxane with hydroxy groups was functionalized to form functionalized polydimethylsiloxane, which subsequently underwent an addition reaction with isophorone diisocyanate to form the prepolymer. Next, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTS) reacted with 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTS) to produce bridged polysilsesquioxanes, and sol-gel technology was employed to form hyperbranched polysiloxane nanoparticles with hydroxy groups, APTS-GPTS, which was used as the additive. The hyperbranched polysiloxane and the prepolymer containing NCO functional groups then underwent an addition reaction to produce the hybrid materials. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance were used to characterize the structure of the polyurethane hybrid. Regarding thermal stability, after the hyperbranched polysiloxane nanoparticles was introduced, the integral procedural decomposition temperature increased from 348 °C for polyurethane matrix to 859 °C for the hybrid material. The results reveal that the thermal stability of the hybrid material substantially increased by approximately 247%.

Keywords

• polyurethane (PU), siloxane
• sol–gel technology
• thermogravimetric analysis
• thermal stability