Mechanical, thermal, and microstructural analyses of thermoplastic poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate)-based polyurethane by RAFT and polyaddition

Abstract

Mechanical and thermal properties of the newly synthesized solid poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate) (PMEA)-based polyurethane (PU) were studied. The obtained PMEA-based PUs with various molecular weights were thermoplastic, synthesized by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) and polyaddition. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that the storage modulus and the melting temperature of PMEA-based PU significantly increased from 1.5 × 10⁴ Pa to 2.3 × 10⁵ Pa and from 25 °C to 73 °C, respectively, as the molecular weight of PMEA-based PU increased. This enhancement in the properties could be due to the formation of an ordered structure in PMEA-based PU, studied using small-angle and wide angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, WAXS). Glass transition temperature, 5% weight-reduction temperature, and the amount of intermediate water of PMEA-based PU were also analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).