Blends of a siloxane/urea/urethane-segmented copolymer with an IPDI-based polyetherurethane

A series of copolymer blends have been prepared using a poly(ether urethane) and a poly(siloxane–urea–urethane). The copolymers were prepared by a hardsegment first, two-step polymerization method. The hard segments of the copolymers were derived from isophorone diisocyanate (IP) and 1,4-benzenedimethanol (B), and the soft segments were based on polytetrahydrofuran (PTMO, M_w = 2000), and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, M_w =27,000), respectively. The siloxanecontaining copolymer, PDMS27K-IP-B2 (2 moles diol chain extender/mole PDMS27K), was used as the minor component (1.6, 2.5 and 6.0 wt%) in a series of blends. These blends were found to preserve the mechanical properties of the poly(ether–urethane) as well as the surface properties of the poly(siloxane–urea–urethane).