Study on thermal transitions of toluene diisocyanate-based polyurethane elastomers with poly (tetramethylene oxide) as the soft segment by TSC/RMA, DSC and DMA thermal analyzers

Abstract

Thermal transitions of TDI-based polyurethane elastomers with PTMO as the soft segment were characterized by the depolarization technique in TSC and by using with the thermal windowing technique on selected specimens in the RMA measurements. Results indicate that the broadened thermal transition in the glass transition region as observed in the DSC thermogram is related to the combined Tg transition and the Tglobal transition in the TSC spectrum. This Tglobal transition is associated with the macromolecular property as detected by tan δ in DMA measurement. The increase in the Tg with a high NCO content may be explained by the structural modification found on the urethanic chain with the additional linkage of the hard segment that affects the cooperative motion of the molecular chain. Data measured from DSC, TSC/RMA and DMA with simulated DEA and wide angle X-ray data are presented for the characterization of the polyurethanes. The RMA measurement leads to a compensation search on Tg transition and provides pertinent thermokinetic data that correlates the NCO content with changes in enthalpy and entropy on the relaxation behaviors in the Tg transition of polyurethane elastomers.