Identification and quantitation of urea precipitates in flexible polyurethane foam formulations by X-ray spectromicroscopy

Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and atomic force microscopy have been used to study the morphology and chemical composition of macrophase-segregated block copolymers in plaque formulations based on water-blown flexible polyurethane foams. Although there has been a large body of indirect evidence indicating that the observed macrophase-segregated features in water-rich polyurethane foams are due principally to urea components, this work provides the first direct, spatially resolved spectroscopic proof to support this hypothesis. The STXM results are consistent with a segregation model where urea segments segregate, forming enriched phases with the majority of the polyether-polyol and urethane groups at the chain ends of the urea hard segments. Chemical mapping of the urea, urethane, and polyether distribution about the urea-rich segregated phases showed that the urea concentration changes gradually (,across several hundred nanometers) in a butylene oxide-based foam. This mapping also showed the urea-rich segregated phases present as a partial network in an ethylene oxide/propylene oxide sample.