ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Synthesis and properties of epoxy soybean oil-based polyurethanes modified by 3,13-dimethyhydroxysilyl double-decker phenylsilsesquioxane

Yue Wen, Pingping Jiang, Agus Haryono, Pingbo Zhang, Lipeng Zhang, Phyu Thin Wai, Daobin Li, Zhiliang Cao, and Jian Xu

Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China

E-mail: ppjiang@jiangnan.edu.cn

Abstract: Nowadays, environmental problems such as petroleum resources exhaustion, pollution and global warming are in ceaseless aggravation. Consequently, vegetable oil becomes one of the most important resources due to its cheapness, easily availability and environmental regeneration. In this study, a series of sustainable polyurethanes based on epoxy soybean oil modified by different contents of 3,13-dimethyhydroxysilyl double-decker phenylsilsesquioxane [DDSQ(Me)OH] have been prepared. Polyol prepared with epoxy soybean oil has effectively replaced the petroleum-based polyol and the DDSQ(Me)OH performed as chain extender together with 1,4-butanediol (BDO). The structure of DDSQ(Me)OH was verified by ¹H NMR and MALDI–TOF–MS. The structure and properties of sustainable polyurethanes were characterized by FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM, tensile test and static contact angle. TGA demonstrated that hybrid polyurethanes were thermally stable due to the covalent incorporation of DDSQ(Me)OH in polymer main chain, the 5% weight loss temperatures (T_d5) of hybrid polyurethane can be 21 °C higher than pure PU. DSC revealed the improved glass transition temperature (Tg) of polyurethanes, and the Tg can be 12.4 °C improved compared with pure polyurethane. SEM showed that the aggregation of DDSQ(Me)OH has dispersed homogeneously in the hybrid polyurethanes matrix. The results of the static contact angle revealed that with the increase of DDSQ(Me)OH content, the surface hydrophobicity has been enhanced significantly, and the static contact angle of water for hybrid polyurethanes can be up to about 110.2°.

Keywords: Epoxy soybean oil ; Polyol ; Double-decker phenylsilsesquioxane ; Hybrid polyurethane ; Thermal stability 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0620-6

Chemical Papers 73 (3) 747–756 (2019)