Abstract
Telechelic associative polymers such as Hydrophobically modified ethoxylated urethanes (HEURs) are an important class of rheology additives used in many industrial fields allowing a precise control of the rheology. To avoid the use of toxic isocyanates, more eco-friendly HEURs were synthesized based on the cyclo-carbonate/amine addition reaction. Hydrophobically modified ethoxylated hydroxyurethanes (HEHURs) were thus obtained by the aminolysis of telechelic 5-membered cyclic carbonates functionalized PEG in the presence of hydrophobic amines of 14, 16 and 18 carbons. The rheological properties (G', G'' and η*) of these amphiphilic structures were investigated, as well as the influence of different parameters such as: temperature (5 to 25 °C), concentration (10 to 20 wt%) and hydrophobic chain length. Their rheological properties were also compared to isocyanate-based equivalent structures (HEURs). Finally, HEHURs were used in latex solution to illustrate their potential use as rheology additives and their thickening efficiency at 0.25 wt%. Mainly Newtonian to fully pseudoplastic profiles were obtained depending on the variation of the hydrophobic chain length.