Egregoros

Signal feed

Timeline

Post

Remote status

Context

1

Replies

2
@Shadowbroker2135 @Homosoypiens One of the ingredient in that foam is urea, so the initial observation was correct. :catnoearscrown:

"The most common application of polyurethane is as solid foams, which requires the presence of a gas, or blowing agent, during the polymerization step. This is commonly achieved by adding small amounts of water, which reacts with isocyanates to form CO2 gas and an amine, via an unstable carbamic acid group. The amine produced can also react with isocyanates to form urea groups, and as such the polymer will contain both these and urethane linkers. The urea is not very soluble in the reaction mixture and tends to form separate "hard segment" phases consisting mostly of polyurea. The concentration and organization of these polyurea phases can have a significant impact on the properties of the foam."