Introduction of water-based polyurethane
Abstract
Polyurethanes (PUs) are a class of versatile polymers; their structure and morphology can be readily tailored to exhibit various mechanical, physical, chemical and biological properties. PUs have been employed in a variety of industrial applications including foams, coatings, textiles, machinery, sporting, transportation, vehicles and construction. Water-based PU was developed to reduce the usage of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the synthesis of conventional solvent based PU, and exhibits advantages of superior material properties (e.g. flexibility, stretchability, elasticity, mechanical strength), processability (e.g. 3D printing, inkjet printing, screen printing, spray coating, molding) and sustainability (e.g. low VOCs, degradable). Water-based PU combines the superior mechanical properties of PU with the excellent stability of colloids. The current research trend of PU is shifting from traditional industrial applications to state-of-the-art fields such as soft and wearable electronics, energy storage devices, biosensors, actuators, photovoltaic devices and stimuli-responsive materials. Due to the existence of a variety of functional groups such as urethane, aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbons, esters, ethers, amides and urea, water-based PU can be physically or chemically incorporated with functional materials to form PU colloidal composites towards various applications.
About the speaker
Dr. Pengxiang Si obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Material Science and Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology in 2013 and 2016, respectively; and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Boxin Zhao. He is currently a post-doc in Prof. Boxin Zhao’s research group. He has 14 peer-refereed publications (8 of them are first authorship) on the journals including Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, etc. His research interests focus on printable colloid and stimuli-responsive water-based polyurethane film, coatings and adhesives.