Molecular engineering of manipulated alginate-based polyurethanes

The novel soluble alginate-based polyurethanes in organic solvents were synthesized by the reaction of NCO-terminated prepolymers and tributylammonium alginate (TBA-Alg) for the first time. The chemical structures of synthesized polyurethanes were characterized using FTIR, H-1 NMR and TGA. The reaction completion was confirmed by disappearing of NCO band in FTIR spectra. Furthermore, a peak at 4.71 ppm and some small peaks at a range of 4.12-4.37 ppm in the H-1 NMR of alginate-based polyurethanes were assigned to the backbone of alginate. The results of both FTIR and H-1 NMR were remarkably confirmed by TGA data. The ionic nature of polyurethane backbone not only affects on thermal properties of samples, but it also changes the chemically-bonded alginate morphology. Both polyether and polyester based non-ionic polyurethanes extended by TBA-Alg illustrated the distinct alginate, whereas those ionomers extended by alginate were appeared as the continuous systems at nanoscale. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.