Frontal polymerization of diurethane diacrylates

Abstract

This work deals with the preparation of poly(urethane acrylates) by using two different polymerization techniques. Namely, the classical batch procedure has been compared with frontal polymerization (FP). A thorough study on the effect of initiator type, concentration, and on the velocity of the front and its maximum temperature has been carried out. Moreover, two different synthetic ways have been studied: the one step poly(urethane acrylate) preparation starting directly from 1,6 diisocyanato hexane and 2‐hydroxyethyl acrylate, and the two step procedure consisting of the synthesis of the corresponding diurethane diacrylate and of its subsequent polymerization. The first method has the advantage of being faster but some caution is necessary due to the excessive heat that is generated if the reaction conditions are not properly chosen. The second approach requires a further step but has the advantage of being more controlled. DSC analysis did not show any significant difference by comparing the thermal properties of the materials obtained by the two techniques (batch and FP). However, since FP runs are very easy and fast to be performed, FP should be seriously taken into proper account when these materials have to be prepared. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 3344–3352, 2008

Frontal Polymerization

“…Frontal polyurethane polymerization [13][14][15], frontal atom transfer radical polymerization [16], and frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) [17] all suffer from short pot lives: that is, bulk polymerization occurs in less than an hour. In some cases, the only way to avoid even faster bulk polymerization is to cool the reagents.…”

“Luminescent polymers containing pyrenyl groups prepared by frontal polymerization of di(ethylene glycol) ethyl ether acrylate using Trigonox-23 as initiator”

“…They also investigated the formation of simultaneousinterpenetrating polymer networks [11], the influence of the reactor geometry, the spin modes [8], and the use of a microencapsulated initiator [9,12]. Mariani et al employed FP to prepare unsaturated polyester/styrene resins [13], diurethane acrylates [14], and different kinds of hydrogels [15e18]. Chen et al achieved the FP of vinylpyrrolidone [19], 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate [20], and Nmethylolacrylamide [21].…”

Preparation and interaction study between fullerene and graphene in a polymeric matrix

“…It is well known that a wide (UV and visible) absorption range is desirable for organic photovoltaics [20,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Frontal Polymerization (FP) is a polymerization technique that allows the conversion of a monomer into a polymer by formation and consequent propagation of a localized reaction zone [7,8,11,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. The resulting polymerization front is able to self-sustain and propagate along the whole reactor.…”