Preparation and properties of superhydrophobic fluorinated polyurethane with room temperature self-healing performance

Abstract

This study synthesized a series of linear polyurethane elastomers (FTPU) with hydrophobicity and self-healing properties by adjusting the content of Polytetrahydrofuran (PTMEG) and fluorinated polyol (F-OH) as soft chain segments, isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and disulfide as hard chain segments. FT-IR, XPS, OM, 3D optical surface profilometer, contact angle tester, SEM, TG, and solvent resistance test were used to characterize its structure and study its self-healing, hydrophobicity, heat resistance, solvent resistance, etc. The results showed that with the increase of F-OH addition, the repair time was shortened and the repair effect was enhanced under the synergistic effect of disulfide bonds and fluorine hydrogen bonds. When the content of F-OH is 50 wt%, the self-healing efficiency is the highest, reaching 94.7%. FTPU can complete self-healing at room temperature (23 ± 2 °C) for 10 h, and self-healing can be completed within 6 min at 100 °C. Second, the introduction of F-OH significantly increased the F content on the surface of FTPU, and the water contact angle of FTPU gradually increased from 70° to 105.5°. More importantly, when FTPU was applied to fabrics, superhydrophobic fabrics with a contact angle of up to 154° were obtained. In addition, FTPU also exhibits excellent thermal stability and solvent resistance, with the T5% of FTPU-3 reaching 331 °C. FTPU has excellent comprehensive performance and can be widely used in various fields such as medical devices, electronic skin, flexible devices, etc.