Polyurethane cationomers. II. Phase inversion and its effect on physical properties

Abstract

Abstract The three series of polyether polyurethane cationomers based on MDI, HDI, and TDI that are the subject of Part I, undergo emulsification (or phase inversion) on addition of water to solutions in MEK. The phase inversion mechanism depends on the structure of hard segment, ionic content, and dispersion temperature. The dispersion process can be divided into three stages involving a separation of hard segment aggregates due to adsorption of water on their surface, water entering into disordered and then ordered hard domains, and finally a rearrangement of agglomerates to form microspheres. The extent of penetration of water into the disordered hard domains decreases with increasing glass transition temperature; while in ordered hard domains, penetration depends on the dissociation temperature of urethane–urethane hydrogen bonds. Thus the penetration of water into the hard domains is strongly dependent on the dispersion temperature. Films cast from the emulsions have both ordered and disordered hard segment regions, this is also true of films cast directly from solution. The dispersion can disrupt the order in hard domains, leading to an increased phase separation for the MDI system and to a slightly increased phase mixing for the HDI and TDI systems. Films cast from solutions have a morphology with soft domains as a continuous phase and hard domains as a fibrillar network dispersed in the continuous phase. After dispersion, the hard segments originally distributed in the dispersed phase can be inverted to become a hard domain network or a continuous phase.