CO2-based polyurethane elastomers with enhanced mechanical and tunable room-temperature damping performances

Abstract

Elastomers provide excellent damping performance owing to their unique viscoelasticity, which are widely used as vibration and noise reduction materials. However, conventional rubber-based elastomers with a low glass transition temperature (T_g) and narrow damping range are difficult to adapt to room-temperature conditions. Additionally, most of petroleum-based elastomers hinder the sustainable development. In this work, a series of novel polyurethane elastomers was synthesized using carbon-fixed CO₂-based polycarbonate propylene diol (PPCD). The impact of hard segment (HS) content on the thermal, mechanical, and damping properties of CO₂-based polyurethane (PU) was comprehensively investigated. Increasing the HS content from 16 % to 44 % increased the T_g from −3.8 °C to 21.7 °C, covering the entire damping range at room temperature with an adjustable damping performance. Furthermore, the tensile strength increased from 7.2 MPa to 27.0 MPa. The synthesis of CO₂-based PU can propel the utilization of PU in damping applications, enabling sustainable advancement of the PU industry.