Microstructure and properties of cerium oxide/polyurethane elastomer composites

In general, inorganic filler/polyurethane elastomer(PUE) composites possess favorable properties, such as modulus, chemical resistance, and heat stability, are promising for broadening the application area of polyurethanes(PU). For the experiments, a series of cerium oxide(CeO_(2))/PUE composites were prepared with different sizes and appearance of CeO_(2), and different mixing methods as well. CeO_(2) particles with different sizes were added into PUs during the formation of urethane linkage and the chain-extend process, respectively. The morphology along with mechanical properties, thermal properties of the composites were studied. The results suggest that the size of CeO_(2) and mixing methods influence the microstructure of PUs which has profound effect on properties of these composites. The composites tend to form more quantity of hard domains(HDs) with small size when CeO_(2) particles were added before the formation of urethane linkage, whereas Ce O2 particles increase the size of HDs when added with chain extender into PU prepolymer.