Comparison of Environmentally Friendly, Selective Polyurethane Catalysts

Abstract

Selected commercially available amines, including N-substituted morpholines, were evaluated as single catalysts and as catalyst mixtures for polyurethane foam preparation. The motivation was the search for economically and environmentally attractive replacements of “classical” catalysts, like diazabicyclooctane, dibutyltindilaurate, and N,N-bis(2-dimethylaminoethyl)methylamine. Especially interesting was replacing dibutyltindilaurate, and also the possibility of using reactive catalyst derivatives that would be incorporated into polyurethanes, thus reducing the content of volatile organic compounds in the polymer. The catalysts were tested on a α,ω-polybutadienediol + toluenediisocyanate-based system. In some experiments, toluenediisocyanate was replaced by the more reactive and environmentally friendly 4,4^′-Methylenebis(phenylisocyanate) and polybutadienediol by polypropyleneglycol.

Keywords:

• Amine catalyst
• Foam
• Gelation
• Kinetics
• Polyurethane

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, grant FT-TA3/034 for the financial support of this work and Ms. Iveta Vlasáková for helping with the samples preparation.

Notes

V/V₀ = (final foam volume/original reactant' volume) Foam Quality (and size): quality: 1 = good, 2 = medium, 3 = poor (irregular); Size: s = small, L = large (example: 1L = good quality large bubbles).