Title: POLYURETHANE FOAM PRODUCTION PROCESS, PRE-MIX, FORMULATION, AND PRODUCT

 Number/Link: WO2013/143129

Applicant/Assignee: Air Products

Publication date: 3-10-2013

“Gist”: Use of halohydrins as an additive in flexible foam formulations improves humid aged properties.

Why it is interesting: Properties of flexible polyurethane foams after humid-ageing appear to greatly improve when about 0.5 to 1 pphp of a halohydrin is added to the formulation.  “Halohydrin” is in this case used as a synonym for halo-alcohol. Mentioned are 2-(2-chloroethoxy)ethanol, 2,2-dichloroethanol and 1-chhloro-6-hexanol e.g. According to the examples the effect appears to be real and most pronounced for mechanical properties after humid ageing viz. tensile and elongation properties. It is not immediately clear to me what the underlying mechanism could be.

Chloroethoxyethanol