Properties and paper sizing application of waterborne polyurethane emulsions synthesized with isophorone diisocyanate

Abstract

In this work, a two-step synthesis methodology has been used to synthesize a series of waterborne polyurethane (WPU) emulsions with isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), poly-caprolactone diol (PCL) and dimethylol propionic acid (DMPA) as monomers and ethylenediamine (EDA) as the chain extender, respectively. The influences of the NCO/OH molar ratio, DMPA content, chemicals-adding sequence, and acetone content on the physical properties of the resultant emulsions have been investigated in detail. The results show that the emulsion viscosity increases with an increase in the NCO/OH molar ratio or DMPA content whereas it declines sharply as the acetone amount increases. The emulsion particle size is seen to increase with the NCO/OH molar ratio but it decreases as the DMPA content increases. The chemicals-adding sequence is observed to strongly affect the particle size and viscosity of the resultant emulsions. For cast films, with an increase in the NCO/OH molar ratio, the elongation monotonically decreases while the tensile strength is seen to increase at first and then deceases. The film water absorption capacity is found to go up as the DMPA content increases. Furthermore, after sized with the emulsions, the paper water resistance is markedly improved and the 30s Cobb value is seen to decrease by 63% as compared to the unsized counterpart. The paper folding resistance and the tensile index are also improved to certain extents. For producing well-performed WPU emulsions for sizing paper sheets, an NCO/OH molar ratio of 1.6–1.8 and a DMPA content of 6.0–7.0 wt.% are preferably chosen.