A series of novel, polypropylene oxide (PPO) based organogels have been synthesized and their moduli measured by cavitation rheometry (CR). Various molecular weights of amine terminated PPO were reacted with hexamethylene diisocyanate to yield PPO with urea functionality and isocyanate termini. Dissolution of the isocyanate terminated PPO into a variety of organic media and subsequent reaction with a primary amine yielded gels with moduli up to 50 kPa at weight percents as low as 2% for some solvents tested. The effect of size of primary amine “capper” was investigated but little effect on final moduli was observed. Solvent polarity was found to have a significant effect on the strength of the gels with non-polar solvents such as toluene and dicholormethane resulting in much stronger gels than those formed in more polar solvents such as THF and ethyl acetate. Additionally, the length of the PPO chain was investigated, where shorter PPO chain lengths were found to result in stronger gels at identical weight percent due to higher density of hydrogen bonding urea groups per mass of gel.

Synthesis of jeffamine-based organogels and subsequent characterization using cavitation rheology

249th National Meeting (2015)

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