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Quantitative investigation of the pore size–reducing effect of perfluorocarbons in polyurethane foaming

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Abstract

Despite the long-standing use of per- and polyfluorinated carbons (FCs) as pore size–reducing agents for polyurethane rigid (PUR) foams, their mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. To shed light on these mechanisms, we provide a quantitative analysis of the influence of the FC concentration on the pore size of PUR cup foams of two different model PUR foam systems: an industrially-relevant “technical system” and a simplified “scientific system.” Combining scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the PORE!SCAN method, we provide a detailed analysis of the pore size distributions of the obtained foams. We confirm that the characteristic pore size of both systems is indeed significantly reduced by adding small quantities of FC. However, we show that there seems to exist a critical FC concentration (about 3 wt.% with respect to the A-component) beyond which adding more FC has a negligible effect. More interestingly, the relative extent of the pore size reduction is almost identical for both PUR foam systems and the normalized pore size distributions remain largely unchanged over the whole range of FC concentrations. Our findings suggest that the FC-driven pore size reduction is a general effect caused by distinct mechanisms that are independent of the choice of the PUR foam system. Moreover, we hypothesize that this effect is not to be searched for during foam aging, as often reported, but during the pre-mixing step.

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Data availability

The data can be obtained contacting the corresponding author Wiebke Drenckhan under wiebke.drenckhan@icscnrs.unistra.fr.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the PLAMICS facility of the Institute Charles Sadron for providing access to the SEM. Moreover, the authors gratefully acknowledge the foam characterization department of BASF Polyurethanes GmbH for performing the experimental aspect of the PORE!SCAN analysis and for providing the data. We thank Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette, Leandro Jacomine, and Marie-Pierre Krafft for fruitful discussion.

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, 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, Sébastien Andrieux & Wiebke Drenckhan

  2. BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, 49448, Lemförde, Germany

    Markus Schütte & Daniel Telkemeyer

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

    Meik Ranft

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  1. Martin Hamann
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Hamann, M., Andrieux, S., Schütte, M. et al. Quantitative investigation of the pore size–reducing effect of perfluorocarbons in polyurethane foaming. Colloid Polym Sci 301, 763–773 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-023-05107-z

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