High Efficient Synthesis of Hydroxyl-Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) based Polyurethane via Microwave Heating

In this work, we establish a facile and efficient method to synthesize the polyurethanes (PUs) containing hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) through microwave-assisted reactions. Comparisons of conventional heat versus microwave reactions have been made. Microwave-assisted synthesis has been found to significantly decrease the reaction time and reduce side reaction of carbon-carbon bond relative to conventional heat. Moreover, we develop a more advanced molecular design for HTPB based PU ranging from content of hard segment to types of non-planer ring structures. The Characterization of the polymers has been conducted with FT-IR, TGA, thermal and mechanical analysis. Among them, single ring contained PU shows the highest properties. In this green and promising way, we can potentially expand the application areas for HTPB based PUs with high performances.