Impact-induced glass-to-rubber transition of polyurea under high-velocity temperature-controlled microparticle impact

Abstract

Deformation-induced glass transition in segmented elastomers has been proposed to allow highly desirable enhanced energy dissipation. In this study, we investigate the temperature-dependent microscale impact response of polyurea at a fixed impact velocity. We observe a local elevated impact energy absorption around 115 °C, which is attributed to the glass-to-rubber transition temperature under the present high-rate dynamic loading. Dielectric spectroscopy was performed, and the soft-segmental α2-relaxation was extracted and fit with a Havriliak–Negami function. The α2-relaxation frequency at 115 °C correlates well with an order-of-magnitude estimate of the equivalent frequency of deformation. This work further supports the importance of the dynamical Tg as an important consideration in the design of impact resistant materials.