Mitsuru Tsuchiya

Microporous polyurethane-acrylamide film cured by electron beam irradiation

Abstract The morphology and aggregation structure of electron beam (EB)-cured microporous polyurethane-acrylamide film was investigated. The urethane-acrylamide prepolymer was synthesized by the reaction of poly(butylene adipate)diol, 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate, and N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide. It was found from scanning electron microscopy that the urethane-acrylamide film, which was prepared by using a methyl ethyl ketone and dimethylformamide (3:1 v/v) mixture as casting solvent, had a microporous structure with pore size of several micrometres, and that the morphology was fixed by EB irradiation. The pore volume of the EB-cured microporous film was determined to be about 460 mm3 g−1 by mercury porosimetry. The micropores were not destroyed even after immersing in solvent, possibly because the cured film had high crystallinity and dense crosslinking. Moreover, it was found by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy that terminal portions of urethane-acrylamide were localized at the film surface.