Molecular engineering of manipulated alginate-based polyurethanes

The novel soluble alginate-based polyurethanes in organic solvents were synthesized by the reaction of NCO-terminated prepolymers and tributylammonium alginate (TBA-Alg) for the first time. The chemical structures of synthesized polyurethanes were characterized using FTIR, 1H NMR and TGA. The reaction completion was confirmed by disappearing of NCO band in FTIR spectra. Furthermore, a peak at 4.71 ppm and some small peaks at a range of 4.12–4.37 ppm in the 1H NMR of alginate-based polyurethanes were assigned to the backbone of alginate. The results of both FTIR and 1H NMR were remarkably confirmed by TGA data. The ionic nature of polyurethane backbone not only affects on thermal properties of samples, but it also changes the chemically-bonded alginate morphology. Both polyether and polyester based non-ionic polyurethanes extended by TBA-Alg illustrated the distinct alginate, whereas those ionomers extended by alginate were appeared as the continuous systems at nanoscale.