The role played by supercritical carbon dioxide used as a dispersant medium in the synthesis of polyurethane particles has been investigated. High-temperature-high-pressure in situ infrared spectroscopic measurements combined with ab initio calculations were performed to investigate the hydroxyl stretching vibrations of ethylene glycol (EG) and 1,4-butanediol (BD), two monomers commonly used in the field of step growth polymerization. Specific interactions between the diols and CO2 have been put in evidence. While the structural characteristics of EG and BD are very similar--both diols have a gauche conformation due to an internal H-bond between the two hydroxyl functions--they behave differently in the presence of dense CO2. In the case of EG, this internal H-bond is broken, allowing the diol and CO2 to form a complex through the conjunction of a Lewis acid-Lewis base (LA-LB) interaction and a new H-bond. When BD complexes to CO2, this internal H-bond remains and is even reinforced indirectly by the LA-LB interaction occurring between the two moieties. In both cases, such a complex formation induces a polarization of the hydroxyl groups and consequently an increase of their nucleophilicity.

Well‐defined polyurethane–polydimethylsiloxane particles of tunable diameter in the range of 0.5–20 μm were synthesized in “one‐shot” by step‐growth polymerization using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as a dispersant medium. Polymerizations were carried out at 60 °C and above 25 MPa, after the solubility of each reactant in scCO2 has been determined in its typical reaction concentration. The synthesis of such copolymers was achieved by polyaddition between short aliphatic diols, that is, ethylene glycol, 1,4‐butanediol (BD) or polyethylene oxide (Mn = 200 g mol−1), and tolylene‐1,4‐di‐isocyanate (TDI) in the presence of mono or di‐isocyanate‐terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as reactive stabilizers and dibutyltin dilaurate as a catalyst. The nature of the diol used as well as the functionality of the reactive stabilizer incorporated was found to have a dramatic effect on the molar mass and the morphology of the resulting product. Thus, copolymers obtained from the polyaddition of BD and TDI in the presence of di‐isocyanate‐terminated PDMS exhibit molar mass up to 90,000 g mol−1. Thermal behaviors of copolymers were also examined by differential scanning calorimetry. All samples exhibited only one glass transition temperature (Tg) and were found to be totally amorphous. A logical decrease of the Tg was observed as the length of the diol incorporated increased, that is, as the density of urethane linkages within the polymer decreased. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 5649–5661, 2007

A new range of end‐functionalized poly(1,1,2,2‐tetrahydroperfluorodecyl acrylate)s was synthesized by ATRP. Such macromonomers were used as reactive and steric stabilizers for the preparation of original core‐shell polyurethane particles in supercritical carbon dioxide. The nature of the chain end functionality, as well as the molar mass of the reactive stabilizer, were varied in order to investigate the role of such parameters on the properties of the resulting materials. Due to the low surface energy of PFDA combined with the high surface roughness induced by the specific microstructure of particles deposited on a silica plate, PUR materials exhibited super‐hydrophobic behavior with a water CA above 150°.magnified image