Kinetics of Urethan Cleavage in Crosslinked Polyurethans
Abstract A series of clean, well defined polyurethan networks was synthesized from polyester glycols, 2, 4-tolylene diisocyanate, and 1, 1′, 1″-trimethylolpropane by means that afforded precise control over the content of urethan groups per network chain. The thermal cleavage of these networks was studied using the technique of stress relaxation. Analysis of the stress relaxation data on each network structure revealed two exponential decay processes differing in rate by about an order of magnitude. The rate of the slower process, which dominates the overall stress decay, was shown to be directly dependent on the content of urethan groups per network chain. Positive identification of this process with urethan cleavage was thereby established. The kinetic and thermodynamic constants associated with urethan cleavage were then calculated from data on this process at different temperatures. The more transient stress decay process was not uniquely definable, but probably originated from the cleavage of one or more types of weak linkages found in small but variable proportions in the different polyurethan networks. The nature and origin of these weak linkages was discussed.