Materials and Chemistry of Polyurethanes
Felipe M. de Souza, Muhammad Rizwan Sulaiman, Ram K. Gupta
Abstract
This introductory chapter summarizes the main concepts related to polyurethane (PU) chemistry. It gives proper insight into the vast number of materials incorporated into the experimental design of this class of polymer. The chapter includes a discussion of petrochemical and biobased materials, emphasizing different chemical approaches and their characteristics. These approaches include epoxidation/ring opening, hydroformylation, ozonolysis, and thiol-ene. Furthermore, a section is dedicated to explaining the structure–property relationship. A wide range of applications of diverse types of PUs, including rigid, flexible, thermoplastic, ionomer, and waterborne, is discussed. This chapter also aims to provide new ideas for the readers with an in-depth and straightforward discussion of the possibilities that will evolve PU chemistry.