The grafting of phthalic acid onto polyurethane copolymer and its impact on the surface hydrophilicity, tensile stress, and shape recovery properties

Abstract

Phthalic acid (PA) was grafted onto polyurethane (PU) in the PA series due to its rigid aromatic structure and carboxyl groups, but PA was simply blended with PU in the control CPA series. The cross-link density and solution viscosity of the PA series notably increased with increasing PA content, and the same parameters of the CPA series did not increase. The maximum tensile stress of the PA series sharply increased due to the chemical cross-linking of the grafted PA, and the tensile strain at break slowly decreased with increasing PA content. The shape recovery of the PA series at 10 °C rapidly increased upon the grafting of PA; however, that of the CPA series decreased with increasing PA content. The hydrophilicity of PU was enhanced by the grafting of PA based on the water contact angle and water vapor permeation results. The low temperature flexibility of the PA series improved more than that of the CPA series under freezing conditions with increasing PA content due to the chemical cross-linking and steric and electrostatic repulsion between PU moieties. Overall, the grafted PA definitely increased the maximum tensile stress, shape recovery, and low temperature flexibility of PU.