Diazirine-Functionalized Polyurethane Crosslinkers for Isocyanate-Free Curing of Polyol-Based Coatings

ACS Appl Polym Mater. 2024 Mar 5;6(6):3517-3522. doi: 10.1021/acsapm.4c00266. eCollection 2024 Mar 22.

Abstract

Polyurethane coatings have strong material properties due to the hydrogen bonding inherent to the urethane groups. However, installing this urethane moiety usually requires curing through difficult-to-handle isocyanates. In this work, we show the development of a polyurethane-based crosslinker that can be used to formulate a one-component polyurethane coating with material properties similar to those of isocyanate-based polyurethane coatings. To achieve this, we used diazirine functionalities that generate carbenes upon heating, which react with alcohol functionalities in a polyol to generate a crosslinked network with a high storage modulus.