Development of a structure-property correlation for castable urethane elastomers

A significant problem in electronic encapsulation is the poor load bearing performance of existing replacements for Adiprene-MOCA urethane elastomer. In response to this problem, this study defines the structural features that control the viscoelastic properties of the following liquid castable elastomers: Adiprene-MOCA, EN-7, and 3121-S. A review of previous investigations on a related class of materials suggests that viscoelastic properties may be more directly related to the physical structure or morphology of these elastomers, rather than their chemical structure. Accordingly, the morphology of the subject elastomers is characterized by means of electron microscopy and x-ray scattering measurements. These measurements reveal that within each elastomer incompatible chain segments cluster into separate domains, or microphases on a scale of 10 +- 1 nm. On this basis, it is concluded that the two major thermomechanical transitions present in each elastomer can be assigned to separate transitions within the two microphases. The above-ambient transition, which determines the upper use temperature of the elastomer, is specifically assigned to the glass transition of an amorphous microphase. The significance of this structure-property correltion for the liquid castable elastomers is twofold: (1) it permits generalization of mechanical property measurements on existing materials in order to predict their performance in unusual applications and (2) it leads to a rational strategy for developing improved elastomers for new, more demanding applications