Understanding of ZnO‐Catalyzed Polyurethane Synthesis from Bisurea for Further Exploration of One‐Pot Synthesis and Property Evaluation Thereof

Abstract ZnO is considered to be a good catalyst for the synthesis of polyurethanes (PUs) by alcoholysis of bisureas (BUs). ZnO tends to form Zn(NCO) 2 (NH 3 ) 2 in the presence of urea at high temperature, so does it in the alcoholysis of BUs. Here, attempt is made to understand the role Zn(NCO) 2 (NH 3 ) 2 plays in the alcoholysis of BUs. A loading of Zn(NCO) 2 (NH 3 ) 2 at 5 mol% is found to be sufficient to catalyze the polymerization and the reaction time is greatly cut from 40 h (catalyzed by ZnO) to 26 h, with similar chemical structures and properties. The tensile strength, elongation at break, and toughness for PU–Zn‐5 can reach 43.8 MPa, 330%, and 94.0 J cm −3 , respectively. One‐pot synthetic strategy is then further introduced to improve the efficiency of the polymerization. Zn(NCO) 2 (NH 3 ) 2 , BU, and PU can be synthesized in one‐pot, by adding ZnO, urea, diamine, LiBr, and diol sequentially. The feasibility of this one‐pot method is verified, indicated by the similar reaction time, chemical structures, molecular weight, thermal and mechanical properties. This one‐pot synthetic strategy offers an efficient way to synthesize PUs directly and simply from urea, diamines, and diols, which is beneficial for improving the molecular diversity of PUs.