| Abstract: | Results of studies on synthesis and properties of siloxane–urethane prepolymers as well as on selected properties of moisture‐cured silicone–urethanes have already been published. In this paper, some results of investigations of the effect of chemical structure of such silicone–urethane polymers on their phase seggregation investigated using mainly (TEM) transmission electron microscopy and small‐angle x‐ray scattering (SAXS) techniques are presented. It was found in TEM studies that in silicone‐urethanes obtained by moisture‐curing of NCO‐terminated prepolymers prepared from siloxane oligomer diols (SOD) and isophoronediisocyanate (IPDI), two factors determine the morphology of samples: length of siloxane chain and NCO/OH ratio. SAXS investigations showed that these silicone–urethanes had a lamellar structure. It was found that the long period of this structure changed from 4 to 9 nanometers as the siloxane chain length increased nine times. The increase of the long period correlated with the decrease of Young's modulus of the corresponding samples. TEM investigations of silicone–urethanes obtained by moisture‐curing of NCO‐terminated prepolymers prepared from the blends of SOD and polyoxypropylenediol (PPG) revealed complex morphology which depended on the SOD/PPG ratio. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
