Solution prepolymerization as a new route for preparing aliphatic polyurethane prepolymers using high‐throughput experimentation

Abstract High‐throughput experimentation (HTE) represents a promising and versatile approach for polyurethane (PU) research as a tool to screen and characterize a large number of samples in an automated way. For the realization of a HTE workflow for PUs, the use of a Chemspeed Accelerator™ SLT106 automated parallel synthesizer was explored. To evaluate the possibility of these techniques for PUs, we studied the synthesis of prepolymers from isophorone diisocyanate and polypropylene glycol in mass and solution. Several optimization steps, transfer to solution polymerization, and downscaling prepolymerizations have been carried out in a manual way before implementing them into the Chemspeed Accelerator™. As a next step, reproducibility investigations and kinetic studies were performed in an automated manner. All experiments were evaluated by characterization with gel permeation chromatography, MALDI–TOF mass spectrometry and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. These results provide a basis to use the HTE technique for screening different PU prepolymers in the future. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 3729–3739, 2009