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Fluorocarbon-driven pore size reduction in polyurethane foams: an effect of improved bubble entrainment

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Abstract

Polyurethane (PU) foams are created via the chemical reactions arising after the blending of two initially liquid components (polyols and isocyanates). They are widely used for thermal insulation, for which a small pore size is required. Some of the most efficient pore size–reducing agents have proven to be per- and polyfluorinated carbons (FCs) which are simply added in small quantities to the initially liquid mixture. However, despite their long-standing use, their modes of action have only recently begun to be studied in detail. One widely accepted explanation of their action is that they supposedly suppress diffusional gas exchange between bubbles in the liquid-foam state of the nascent PU foam (foam coarsening). However, using a new double-syringe mixing technique, we show that FCs actually act at a much earlier state of the process: they facilitate the entrainment of tiny air bubbles into PU foam systems during the initial blending process. These bubbles serve as sites for heterogeneous nucleation during the foaming process, and their large number leads to a significant reduction of the characteristic pore size. More importantly, we also demonstrate that the same overall relation is found between the air bubble density and the final pore size for systems with and without FC. Combined with a detailed analysis of the pore size distribution, we argue that the main pore size–reducing effect of FCs is to facilitate air entrainment and that foam aging–related effects only play a minor role.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Leandro Jacomine, Jonathan Dijoux, Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette, Marie-Pierre Krafft, Dominique Langevin, and Katja Steck for precious scientific discussions and technical help. The authors gratefully acknowledge the PLAMICS facility of the Institute Charles Sadron for providing access to the SEM.

Funding

This work has been financed by BASF and an ERC Consolidator Grant (agreement 819511 – METAFOAM). It also profited from an IdEx Unistra “Attractivity grant” (Chaire W. Drenckhan). Overall, it was conducted in the framework of the Interdisciplinary Institute HiFunMat, as part of the ITI 2021–2028 program of the University of Strasbourg, CNRS and Inserm, and was supported by IdEx Unistra (ANR-10-IDEX-0002) and SFRI (STRATUS project, ANR-20-SFRI-0012) under the framework of the French Investments for the Future Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Charles Sadron, CNRS-UPR 22, Université de Strasbourg, 67200, Strasbourg, France

    Martin Hamann, Guillaume Cotte-Carluer, Sébastien Andrieux & Wiebke Drenckhan

  2. BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, 49448, Lemförde, Germany

    Daniel Telkemeyer & Markus Schütte

  3. BASF SE, 67056, Ludwigshafen Am Rhein, Germany

    Meik Ranft

Authors
  1. Martin Hamann
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  2. Guillaume Cotte-Carluer
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  7. Wiebke Drenckhan
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Contributions

MH and GCC conducted and analyzed the experiments. All authors designed the study. MH and WD wrote the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript. WD, MR, and MS managed the project and acquired the funding.

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Correspondence to Wiebke Drenckhan.

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Hamann, M., Cotte-Carluer, G., Andrieux, S. et al. Fluorocarbon-driven pore size reduction in polyurethane foams: an effect of improved bubble entrainment. Colloid Polym Sci 302, 585–596 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-023-05208-9

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