27:T4e9,

Recent changes in legislation have forced one-component foam producers to drop the amount of free monomeric isocyanate in their polyurethane systems. Also, it is required that commercial polyurethane aerosol cans exhibit at least one year of shelf life and polyurethane foams must be classified as B2 on the fire testing following DIN 4102. This paper reports on a systematic optimization study of polyurethane formulations dedicated to address these current industry requirements. A one-component foam system exhibiting simultaneously all of these parameters was achieved by reacting conventional diols, a relatively low-molecular weight monol (2-ethylhexanol), a flame retardant high-molecular weight monol (tris(bromoneopentyl)alcohol), a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate-based prepolymer (GreenAdduct 13), and a small amount of 2,4′-toluene diisocyanate. The use of monols allows producing prepolymers with low free methylene diphenyl diisocyanate by preventing chain extension and, therefore, avoiding extreme viscosity build-up. Toluene diisocyanate also promotes a lower viscosity inside the aerosol can, which enables the use of high enough quantities of high-molecular weight flame retardant monol to achieve a B2 fire test classification.

28:T4f4,

A thermosetting epoxy resin system consisting of diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and m-xylylenediamine (MXDA) was successfully foamed by carbon dioxide (CO₂) using two-step batch process. Isothermal curing kinetics of epoxy system was developed to help control the pre-curing degree of resin under different pre-curing conditions. Samples with different pre-curing degrees were prepared and then foamed via temperature-rising foaming process. It was found that the pre-curing degree was a crucial index for the foamability of epoxy resin. The effects of pre-curing conditions on curing reaction as well as further foaming results were investigated, and the results showed that the pre-curing degree from 37.7% to 46.3% was the proper foaming range for the chosen epoxy resin. With increasing pre-curing degrees from 37.7% to 51.6%, viscosity and elasticity of pre-cured resins increased, and correspondingly, average cell size of epoxy foams decreased from 329.8 µm to 60.8 µm while cell density increased from 1.4 × 10⁵ cells/cm³ to 8.6 × 10⁵ cells/cm³. Furthermore, the foamed samples with the same pre-curing degree had similar cell morphology regardless of pre-curing conditions.

29:T4e2,

Stochastic foam models are generated from Voronoi spatial partitioning, using the centers of equi-sized hard spheres in random periodic distributions as seed points. Models with different levels of polydispersity are generated by varying the packing of the spheres. Subsequent relaxation is then performed with the Surface Evolver software which minimizes the surface area for better resemblance with real foam structures. The polydispersity of the Voronoi precursors is conserved when the models are converted into equilibrium models. The relation between the sphere packing fraction and the resulting degree of volumetric polydispersity is examined and the relations between the polydispersity and a number of associated morphology parameters are then investigated for both the Voronoi and the equilibrium models. Comparisons with data from real foams in the literature indicate that the used method is somewhat limited in terms of spread in cell volume but it provides a very controlled way of varying the foam morphology while keeping it periodic and truly stochastic. The study shows several strikingly consistent relations between the spread in cell volume and other geometric parameters, considering the stochastic nature of the models.

2a:T5c9,