Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Polyisobutylene-Based Thermoplastic Polyurethanes

We investigated thermal and mechanical properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) with the soft segment comprising of both polyisobutylene (PIB) and poly(tetramethylene) oxide (PTMO) diols. Thermal analysis reveals that the hard segment in all the TPUs investigated is completely amorphous. Significant mixing between the hard and soft segments was also observed. By adjusting the ratio between the hard and soft segments, the mechanical properties of these TPUs were tuned over a wide range, which are comparable to conventional polyether-based TPUs. Constant stress creep and cyclic stress hysteresis analysis suggested a strong dependence of permanent deformation on hard segment content. The melt viscosity correlation with shear rate and shear stress follows a typical non-Newtonian behavior, showing decrease in shear viscosity with increase in shear rate. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.