Polyaspartic polyurethane coatings are used to protect bridges, stadiums, and other structures from environmental damages. These coatings have been found to cure extremely quickly during periods of high humidity. The current research is aimed at discovering the reason for this decreased drying time, and to potentially develop an amine analog that does not display variable drying times due to environmental humidity. Relative reaction rates of various secondary amines under different conditions have been determined via 1H NMR spectroscopy. This work has been done to investigate the mechanism for this water catalysis. Results suggest that water is disrupting intramolecular hydrogen bonds in certain amines. This causes a conformational change which makes the lone pair less sterically hindered and allows it to more readily attack the isocyanate carbon, thus increasing the reaction rate.

Kinetics of curing in polyaspartic coatings

247th National Meeting (2014)

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