Supramolecular Polyurethanes and their Composites: Properties and Engineering Performance

Completed

Not Energy Related
Energy Efficiency(Industry)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr W Hayes
Chemistry
University of Reading

Standard

EPSRC

19 November 2012

18 March 2016

40 months

£387,021

Materials sciences

South East

Manufacturing : Physical Sciences

Dr W Hayes, Chemistry, University of Reading

Project Contact, Akzo Nobel
Project Contact, Henkel Consumer Adhesives

A major challenge in the development of more sustainable polymeric materials for industrial manufacturing processes (such as coating or molding) for commodity products is how to ameliorate the need to manipulate the material at elevated temperatures (so it can flow and be shaped as a liquid) whilst maintaining desirable mechanical properties of the polymer (e.g. strength and toughness) at room temperature in the finished article. Processes such as injection molding or hot-melt adhesive application require elevated temperatures (often greater than 200 degrees Celsius) and thus represent capital-intensive, energy-consuming, production technologies which in turn inflate the cost and carbon-footprint of the final product. The ability to manipulate polymers at relatively modest, and controllable, elevated temperatures (sub 100 degrees Celsius) would represent significant savings of energy and cost. This proposal describes a route to novel supramolecular materials that can be processed in this manner and will also offer recyclable characteristics. The project will investigate the physical and mechanical properties of new supramolecular polyurethanes and their composite materials in order to generate a new generation of adhesives and surface coatings. Supramolecular polymers are relatively short chain organic materials that are held together by many non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, to afford polymers of far higher molecular mass and, as a consequence, these systems exhibit many solid-state characteristics common to 'traditional' covalent bonded polymers (e.g. strength and stiffness). However, as a consequence of the relatively weak non-covalent interactions that hold the supramolecular polymers together, these materials can be dissociated easily into their individual contributing components by the application of a suitable (relatively modest) stimulus - e.g. heat or light.In this project we will also harness the thermal cycling potential of supramolecular polyurethanes in conjunction with the enhanced strength and toughness offered by fibrous and particulate fillers by developing novel supramolecular polymer composites. Such materials are potentially attractive as easily-applied adhesives and tough, corrosion resistant and healable coatings for metals and electronic components. The field of supramolecular composites is in its infancy and has yet to gain significant coverage in the literature and thus this proposal is very timely. Furthermore, the well-defined chemistry of the supramolecular polyurethanes and the composites formed from them will be used in conjunction with mechanical measurements to construct a solid-melt constitutive model parameterized in terms of the chemical structure of the supramolecular polyurethanes. In doing so, a predictive tool will be generated, suitable for design of further supramolecular materials, targeted at specific thermo-mechanical properties

21/01/13