Silanol-containing urethane dispersions

An aqueous dispersion of curable poly(urethane-urea) characterized in having a poly(urethane-urea) backbone containing interspersed bound solubilizing ionic moieties pendant from said backbone and terminal mutually interreactive silyl moieties, said solubilizing moieties being present to an extent of about one per 800 to 20,000 daltons and the silyl group of said silyl moieties being of the general form Y.sub.3 Si- where Y is a labile group and said silyl moieties further being present to an extent of about two per 1000 to 125,000 daltons and there being no more than one prepolymer-derived cross-link per 3000 daltons in said curable poly(urethane-urea).

Process for production of an aqueous dispersion of poly(urethane-urea) comprising the steps of

• 1. reacting polymeric polyol with a stoichiometric excess of polyisocyanate to produce isocyanate-terminated prepolymer,
• 2. reacting said prepolymer with less than stoichiometric amounts of isocyanate-reactive X.sub.3 Si- compound and water solubilizing ionic compound, X being H, alkoxy, acyloxy, halogen or amino, to obtain an isocyanate containing prepolymer and thereafter,
• 3. mixing said isocyanate-containing prepolymer with water under agitation thereby obtaining a stable dispersion of silyl-terminated poly(urethane-urea).

An at least partially siloxane cross-linked self-supporting film of poly(urethane-urea) comprising interspersed bound water solubilizing ionic groups pendent from the backbone of said poly(urethane-urea).