Spiropyran (SP) based polyurethane was first reported by Prof. Jeffrey Moore. And since that a lot of SP-based elastomers were synthesized and showed interesting properties such as UV-sensitive and mechanical sensitive properties. PU dispersion, because it is with low VOC and environmental friendly, it is very useful in many applications such as coatings, biological fluids, drilling muds, food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals which attracted great interests of scientists.Here, the mechanophore was chemically introduced into the hard segments of the PU chain, and after the �acetone process�, the SP-PU dispersion was prepared. It was cloudy yellow at room temperature, but when exposed under UV for 5mins, it suddenly turned into purple pink. Also the fluorescence of the dispersion was found.Further, the dispersion was coated to form transparent yellow films. The film also showed great UV responsible properties.What's more, the color of the film changed during the tension. This is because the force makes structure of the spiropyran changed to form the conjugated MC, which is purple and the force induced structure change indicated the SP was introduced in the main chain of PU.The UV, force sensitive SP-PU dispersion could be used in smart and environment friendly coatings.

Polyurethane dispersion with mechanophore in the main chain

248th National Meeting (2014)

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