Highly efficient hydrophobically modified ethoxylated urethanes (HEURs) end-functionalized by two-tail dendritic hydrophobes: Synthesis, solution rheological behavior and thickening in latex

Hydrophobically modified ethoxylated urethanes (HEURs) are an important class of telechelic associative polymers with various industrial applications, in which careful control of the rheology of the solution is required. We report the synthesis of three novel HEUR polymers end-functionalized by dendritic di-substituted benzene alcohol ( HEUR-2Cn , where n is the length of hydrophobic tails) and their rheological properties in aqueous solutions and latex. The concentrated solutions of these HEURs show interesting aggregation and viscoelastic properties dependent of their hydrophobe length: a viscoelastic liquid for HEUR-2C8 , and elastic gels for both HEUR-2C12 and HEUR-2C16 due to their different relaxation behavior. Interestingly, the concentrated solutions of HEUR-2C16 form the strongest transient network with the largest number density of active micellar junctions and slowest relaxation because of its longest hydrophobe. Furthermore, these HEUR polymers have highly efficient thickening performance in latex compared with a conventional HEUR-C16 with −C 16 H 33 end group, because the dendritic two-tail hydrophobes can form more stable absorption on the surface of the latex through bridging between the latex particles than a single hydrophobe. This work opens a new perspective for highly efficient thickeners and also provides new insights into the potential of these HEUR polymers in waterborne coating, cosmetics, dyestuff, medicines and so on.