From Architectures to Cutting-Edge Properties, the Blooming World of Hydrophobically Modified Ethoxylated Urethanes (HEURs)

Abstract

Hydrophobically modified ethoxylated urethanes (HEURs) are associative polymers that, compared to others, are far less sensitive to solution parameters, especially pH and ionic strength. Therefore, they are widely used as rheology modifiers in many different waterborne systems such as inks, coatings, emulsions, and so on. In solutions, HEURs form transient networks through molecular associations between their hydrophobic groups. The transient network formation and its characteristics are responsible for the rheological properties and depend on the HEUR chains’ architecture. Many parameters such as molecular weight, size and nature of hydrophobic groups, polymer concentration, and so on must be controlled to tune the several physicochemical properties of HEUR solutions. This Perspective aims to give an overview of the HEUR studies reported in the literature to highlight the structure/rheological properties relationship. The Perspective also draws attention to new trends in HEURs with innovative architectures and stimuli-responsive properties.