Novel quinoline-based polyurethane elastomers. The effect of the hard segment structure in properties enhancement

Polyurethane elastomers incorporating a quinoline moiety along their polymeric backbones and aliphatic, aromatic or heterocyclic crosslinkers have been synthesized and characterized. For this, NCO-terminated urethane oligomers were prepared from poly(butylene adipate) diol and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate and were subsequently chain extended with 2,4-quinolinediol and different crosslinkers. This study reports the influence of the different crosslinker chemical structures and the hard segment molar ratio on the thermal and dynamic mechanical thermal properties, as well as on the mechanical properties of these elastomers. The fluorescence spectra of polyurethane elastomers were determined at an excitation wavelength of 290 nm. The different chemical structures of the crosslinkers determine the hard segment cohesion and reduce the mobility of the soft phase, having an important effect on thermal stability and on the mechanical properties of the polyurethane films. Thus the incorporation of aromatic crosslinkers results in polyurethanes with lower elongation and stress at break. The highest mechanical properties were obtained for polyurethanes crosslinked with aliphatic crosslinkers.