Abstract
The formation of urethane, soluble urea and hydrogen bonded urea species during the fast bulk copolymerisation which forms flexible polyurethane foam has been studied using the adiabatic reactor method and forced-adiabatic, time- resolved FT-IR spectroscopy. The evolution of hydrogen bonded urea is analysed emphasizing the onset of microphase separation of urea hard segment sequences and their subsequent growth into hydrogen bonded urea hard segment domains. FT-IR spectroscopy indicated that the microphase separation transition (MST) occurred at a critical conversion of isocyanate functional groups. The results also indicated that the microphase-separation process appears to occur via a nucleation and growth mechanism.
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