Toward a Green Synthesis of Polyurethane/(Meth)acrylic Dispersions through Control of Colloidal Characteristics

Polyurethane (PU)/acrylic waterborne hybrids are an attractive class of materials with wide application possibilities, but their synthesis typically requires significant quantities of solvent which has negative economic and environmental consequences. In this work, solvent-free and surfactant-free polyurethane (PU)/acrylic waterborne hybrids were obtained by synthesizing the PU prepolymer containing carboxylic groups directly in (meth)acrylic monomers that act as solvent. Then, the mixture is dispersed in water; the PU is chain-extended with diamines, and the (meth)acrylic monomers are polymerized. It was found that, against expectations, colloidal stability did not improve with the concentration of carboxylic groups that acted as stabilizing moieties. A combination of MALDI-TOF MS analysis and Monte Carlo simulations revealed that the highly heterogeneous compositions of the short chains of the PU prepolymer and their reaction with the chain-extender in the aqueous phase were responsible for lack of control of the colloidal properties. This problem was overcome by using more hydrophobic chain-extenders that decrease the fraction of PU chains in the water phase. In this way high-solid-content stable dispersions with controlled particle size were obtained. Finally, the properties of the PU/(meth)acrylic films were studied in terms of mechanical properties and water resistance.