Molecular mobility of soft segment of polyurethane elastomers under elongation

In this study, we investigated molecular mobility of a soft segment in the poly(oxypropylene) glycol (PPG), 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and 1,4-butane diol (BD)-based polyurethane elastomers (PUE) with and without elongation by dynamic viscoelastic property measurement and pulse nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement. The peak position of the loss tangent (tand) curves shifted to the lower temperature region with increasing elongation. In the pulse NMR measurement, the long spin-spin relaxation time (T₂) component appeared at -18.0(ε=0) and -26.0°C(ε=1. 5), respectively, with increasing temperature. Since this temperature seems to be related to the glass transition temperature (T_g) of the soft segment in the PUE, it is likely to consider that the T_g decreased with increasing strain. These results might be attributed that the size of cooperative motion during the glass transition decrease due to the orientation of the soft segment, and the soft segment phase approach to a pure phase on account of the extraction of the hard segment from the soft segment phase.