High‐performance UV‐curable urethane acrylates via deblocking chemistry

Research in urethane‐acrylate UV‐curables has shown that these materials have mechanical properties inferior to those of thermoplastic polyurethanes with very similar composition owing to the high cross‐link density in UV‐curables; in particular, their ultimate extension is low (less than 100%). Past attempts at increasing the ultimate extension involved compromising the advantages of the UV‐curing process. In this work, thermally labile bonds were made and then broken after curing, so as to incorporate thermoplastic polyurethane in the UV‐cured polymer. This method achieved the desired improvement in ultimate properties without compromising the advantages of the UV‐curing process. Two different reactive diluents and three different chain extenders were utilized, keeping the soft segment type (PPO), hard segment type (IPDI), and their weight fractions constant. The resulting polymers were similar to interpenetrating networks of linear or cross‐linked polyurethanes and linear or cross‐linked polyacrylates with properties entirely different from their UV‐cured precursors, as well as the corresponding polyurethanes. All the materials involved were characterized by tensile testing and dynamic mechanical analysis. The ultimate extensions as well as the ultimate strength of the final polymers were found to be significantly greater than those of the corresponding UV‐curable precursors, while the degree of phase separation was found to have changed. The differences in mechanical properties of the UV curables and the polyurethanes cannot be explained in terms of differences in cross‐link density or composition and are probably due to differences in their morphology. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.