Self‐Healing Polyurethane Binder with Catalytic Thermal Decomposition Property Based on Metal‐Ligand Interaction

Abstract Hydroxyl Terminated Poly Butadiene (HTPB) based polyurethanes are widely used as polymeric binders in energetic formulations & other applications. Hence, customization in structure of HTPB has been investigated to improve their mechanical and thermal properties. Herein, modification of HTPB polyurethane has been reported in this paper by incorporating 2‐hydroxy‐3, 5‐dinitropyridine (DNP) covalently into the HTPB polyurethane matrix in order to exhibit self‐healing properties. The functionalized polyurethane concurrently displays self‐healing capability via metal‐ligand interaction and also catalytic activity towards thermal decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate (AP). The self‐healing ability was observed by Optical Microscope and up to 96 % healing efficiency was observed by UTM analysis. Further, the catalytic activity was observed with thermal decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate performed by DSC shows lowering in decomposition temperature by 73 °C. By involving the self‐healing and catalytic activity through single moiety in the polymer chain, this two‐in‐one strategy allows to produce advance binders for energetic formulations.