Kinetic studies on the cure reaction of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene based polyurethane with variable catalysts by differential scanning calorimetry

This paper employs differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to investigate the reactions of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) binder and isophorone isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) with two different cure catalysts, namely, dibutyl tin dilaurate (DBTDL) and stannous octanoate (TECH). This study evaluates the effects of two cure catalysts (i.e. DBTDL and TECH) on rate constants of the polyurethane cure reactions. Throughput the study, the kinetic parameters and the curing reaction rate equations are obtained. The present work concludes that both catalysts had a catalytic effect on the HTPB-IPDI system, but that the catalytic effect of DBTDL was higher than that of TECH. The binder system with the TECH catalyst displayed a longer pot-life and lower toxicity compared with the DBTDL. Additionally, this study investigates the binder system’s viscosity build-up at 35°C and the viscosity build-up results were in agreement with the DSC analysis results.