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The time-dependent morphology development in a segmented polyurethane, which was prepared by the reaction of equimolar amounts of 1,4-phenylene diisocyanate (pPDI) and poly-(tetramethylene oxide)glycol of 〈Mn〉 of 975 g/mol, was investigated. No chain extender was utilized during the synthesis, and the resultant monodisperse hard segments constituted 14 wt % of the copolymer. Timedependent microphase separation and morphology development was studied at room temperature by using solvent-cast films which were heated above the hard segment melting temperature, 55 °C, to erase the semicrystalline microphase morphology. Atomic force microscopy showed that, following heat treatment, the hard phase first developed into short rods within 30 min, followed by a growth period during which the short rods grew longer and eventually into a well-defined percolated structure. Morphology development was also followed by FTIR spectroscopy. While the intensity of the free CdO peak at 1730 cm -1 decreased, the intensity of the hydrogen-bonded CdO peak at 1695 cm -1 , which was not present in the original annealed sample, increased with time and began to plateau in ∼24 h. A timedependent increase in the storage modulus of the copolymer, following heat treatment, was also noted. This latter change could be described by the Avrami equation, yielding an Avrami exponent of 0.55. Because of the similarity of the copolymer's morphology to that of short fiber reinforced polymer composites, selected models developed for predicting the modulus of such composites could reasonably estimate the initially surprisingly high ambient temperature storage modulus of the copolymer of 0.9 × 10 8 Pa.

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Soluble model segmented poly(urethane urea)s (PUU) with or without hard segment (HS) branching were utilized to explore the importance of hydrogen bonding and chain architecture in mediating the long-range connectivity of the HS phase. The HS content of all the PUU copolymers was 22 wt %, and the soft segment (MW 970 g/mol) was a heterofed random copolymer of 50:50 ethylene oxide:propylene oxide, which possesses a single terminal hydroxyl group (monol). An 80:20 isomeric mixture of 2,4-and 2,6-toluene diisocyanate, 4,4′,4′′-triphenylmethane triisocyanate and water were utilized during the chain extension step of the synthesis to incorporate HS branching. DSC and SAXS results on the final plaques indicated that the samples were still able to establish a microphase morphology even in the presence of the highest extent of HS branching utilized in the study. The tapping-mode AFM phase image of the PUU sample without HS branching exhibited the presence of long ribbonlike hard domains that percolated through the soft matrix. The long-range connectivity of the HS was increasingly disrupted with higher levels of HS branching. Accompanying such disruption was a systematic mechanical softening of the PUU samples. FT-IR indicated that incorporation of HS branching disrupted the hydrogen-bonded network within the hard phase. These results demonstrate the importance of hydrogen bonding and chain architecture in mediating the long-range connectivity and percolation of the HS and achieving dimensional stability.