High‐Performance Elastomer with Excellent Resistance to Low Temperature, Aging and Solvent
Xiwei Guo, Ronan Brown, Yue Dong, Haoyu Feng, Yang Xiang, Dongxu Wang, Qi Zhang, He Zhu, Shiping Zhu
Abstract
Abstract Elastomers are essential for a variety of demanding applications, but their performance is significantly compromised under harsh conditions, such as extremely low temperatures and serious aging. Herein, a novel polyurethane elastomer (PFTA) is presented, having perfluoropolyether as the soft segment and catechol‐containing molecules synthesized via Schiff base reaction as the chain extender, where the perfluoropolyether segments confer outstanding low‐temperature and solvent resistance and the catechol groups provide exceptional anti‐aging properties to the material. As a result, the obtained elastomer achieves an ultralow glass transition temperature of approximately −115 °C, demonstrating remarkable flexibility at extremely low temperatures, even in a liquid nitrogen environment, and possesses good aging and solvent resistance. These results highlight that the combination of catechol functionalization and perfluoropolyether segments provides a promising platform for the development of elastomers suitable for extreme environmental applications, such as aerospace and polar exploration.