The Preparation and Characterization of an Epoxy Polyurethane Hybrid Polymer Using Bisphenol A and Epichlorohydrin

Abstract

Epoxy polymers composed of bisphenol A (BPA) and epichlorohydrin (ECH) were grafted onto polyurethane (PU) using the graft-polymerization method to prepare the epoxy PU hybrid polymer. The main series contained the epoxy polymer grafted onto PU; however, the epoxy polymer was not bound to PU in the control series. The breaking tensile stress steeply increased at low BPA and ECH contents and then decreased as more BPA and ECH were included in the main series, whereas the control series did not display an incline in the breaking tensile stress irrespective of the BPA and ECH contents. The percent shape recovery also steeply increased after the grafting of epoxy polymer in the main series but increased at a slower rate in the control series. The flexibility of the main series at a freezing temperature was not enhanced compared with the plain PU because the grafted epoxy polymers did not effectively disrupt the molecular interaction between PUs. Therefore, the grafting of epoxy polymers noticeably enhanced the breaking tensile strength and percent shape recovery of PU.