CO-Blown Nonisocyanate Polyurethane Foams.

Polyurethane (PU) foams are produced from toxic, petrochemical- and phosgene-derived isocyanates. Although nonisocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) has shown promise as a replacement for traditional PU, the synthesis of NIPU foams has not been widely studied due to the difficulties in replicating the foaming process of PU, in situ CO production through the hydrolysis of isocyanates. Hereby, we report the synthesis of amine-CO adducts and their CO adsorption-desorption characteristics under different conditions. The results show that the amine-CO adducts can exhibit up to 87% CO desorption at 60 °C after aminolysis with cyclic carbonate. The amine-CO adduct is used as both a foaming agent and a comonomer to obtain low-density foams (0.203-0.239 g·cm) after heating at 50-60 °C for 24-48 h. This marks the successful synthesis of in situ CO-blown NIPU foams using an amine-CO adduct.