Hard segment properties

The choice of macrodiol influences the low temperature performance, whereas the modulus, ie, hardness, stiffness, and load-beating properties, increases with increasing hard-segment content. 

The pseudocross-links, generated by the hard-segment interactions, are reversed by heating or dissolution. Without the domain crystallinity, thermoplastic polyurethanes would lack elastic character and be more gum-like in nature. In view of the outlined morphology, it is not surprising that many products develop their ultimate properties only on curing at elevated temperature, which allows the soft- and hard-phase segments to separate. 

Improved polyurethane can he produced hy copolymerization. Block copolymers of polyurethanes connected with segments of isobutylenes exhibit high-temperature properties, hydrolytic stability, and barrier characteristics. The hard segments of polyurethane block polymers consist of 4RNHCOO)-n, where R usually contains an aromatic moiety. 

Miller J.A., Lin S.B., Hwang K.K.S., Wu K.S., Gibson P.E., and Cooper S.L. Properties of polyether-polyurethane block copolymers Effect of hard segment length distribution. Macromolecules, 18, 32, 1985. 

PU elastomers contain alternative soft and hard segments, which separate into different phases. Hard domains play a role of cross-links, whereas soft blocks provide extensibility. Therefore, morphology and properties of PU are defined by relative amount of soft and hard segments. For example, at 70% concentration of soft segments, the material is described as a mbbery matrix with... 

These materials exhibit the same type of morphology as the copolyether esters, the polyamide providing the hard segment, and the polyester the soft elastomeric phase. The service temperature is lower than that of the copolyether esters, but apart from this difference they exhibit similar properties. 

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