Kinetic studies of polyurethane polymerization with Raman spectroscopy

In this study, the polymerization kinetics of an uncatalyzed polyester based thermoplastic polyurethane formulation was characterized with Raman spectroscopy. Measuring the normalized scattering intensity of a band originating from the TPU diisocyanate, conversion was calculated as a function of time. Kinetic parameters obtained from these experiments correlated well with those obtained from analogous calorimetric experiments and with literature values. It was concluded that Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool for characterizing the polymerization kinetics of polyurethanes in situ.