In vitro oxidative stability of high strength siloxane poly(urethane-urea) elastomers based on linked-macrodiol

In vitro oxidative stability of two siloxane poly(urethane urea)s synthesized using 4,4′-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (in SiPUU-1) and Isophorone diisocyanate (in SiPUU-2) linked soft segment was evaluated using 20% H 2 O 2 and 0.1 mol/L CoCl 2 solution at 37°C under 150% strain. Commercially available siloxane polyurethane (Elast-Eon™ 2A) and polyether polyurethane (ChronoThane P™ 80A) were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. ChronoSil™ 80A was included as another commercially available polycarbonate polyurethane. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) examinations, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and molecular weight reduction revealed the extensive degradation of ChronoThane P™ 80A after 90 days while SiPUU-1, SiPUU-2 and Elast-Eon™ 2A showed no noticeable surface degradation. ChronoSil™ 80A showed degradation in both soft and hard segments. Tensile testing was carried out only on unstrained polyurethanes for 90 days. ChronoThane P™ 80A showed 35% loss in ultimate tensile strength and it was only 13–14% for SiPUU-1 and Elast-Eon™ 2A. However, the tensile strength of ChronoSil™ 80A was not significantly affected. The results of this study proved that SiPUU-1 possess oxidative stability comparable with Elast-Eon™ 2A.