Kinetic Study of the Polymerization of Aromatic Polyurethane Prepolymers by High-Throughput Experimentation
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Majoros, Laszlo I.; Dekeyser, Bernard; Hoogenboom, Richard; Fijten, Martin W. M.; Geeraert, Jan; Haucourt, Nancy; Schubert, Ulrich S.
- Abstract:
- In this contribution, high-throughput screening
experiments are reported to study the polymerization of different
aromatic polyurethane (PU) prepolymers. The prepared prepolymers
were synthesized from toluene diisocyanate (T80)
with different molar mass polyether diols and polyether triols,
respectively. The reactions were performed in solution using a
Chemspeed AcceleratorTM SLT106 automated parallel synthesizer
as well as in bulk to evaluate the high-throughput
approach for this kind of prepolymers. More than 100 samples
were prepared and characterized by GPC within 1 week labor
time to investigate the reaction kinetics and to compare the
resulting trends obtained by high-throughput experimentation
(HTE) or by conventional, bulk prepolymerization. The synthesis
of the prepared prepolymers with a linear (T80-Diol) or a
branched (T80-Triol) structure followed a second-order kinetic in
solution but showed deviation from this phenomenon in bulk
under the selected reaction conditions, although the same
trends are observed in both cases. The calculation of the rate
constants allowed comparing the reactivity of different prepolymer
systems, which could have a significant influence on the
industrial application and processing of these materials. As a
result, the HTE approach was found to represent a powerful tool
for the kinetic studies of PU prepolymers. Moreover, in spite of
the complexity of the curing process, the results obtained by
high-throughput solution polymerization can be applied for
evaluating the bulk polymerization.
- Year:
- 2010
- Type of Publication:
- Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Polymer Science: Part A: Polymer Chemistry
- Volume:
- 48
- Pages:
- 570 - 580