Ứng dụng

Polyurethanes are one of the most commonly used types of plastic. They are produced by the reaction of raw polyols with isocyanates. Depending on the starting material a wide variety of plastics can be obtained. The determination of the acid value, hydroxyl value, and isocyanate content plays an important part in the analysis of raw materials for plastics. The acid number of polyol raw material is usually used in quality control to ensure batch-to-batch uniformity. Additionally it is used as correction factor for calculating the true hydroxyl number. In this Application Bulletin the determination of the acid number according to ASTM D4662 and ASTM D7253 is described. One raw material for polyurethanes are polyols. Polyols contain multiple hydroxyl groups. Therefore, hydroxyl number of a raw material directly correlates to the amount of polyols present and it is thus an important quality control parameter. In this Application Bulletin the determination of the hydroxyl number according to ASTM E1899 and DIN 53240-3 is described. As polyols react stoichiometrically with isocyanates, the knowledge of the isocyanate content is an important quality parameter for the production of polyurethanes. In this document the determination according to EN ISO 14896 method A, ASTM D5155 method A and ASTM D2572 is described.

The presented titration system can be used for the fully automated determination of the hydroxyl number (HN) according to ASTM E1899 and EN ISO 4629-2. The method allows, the determination of polyols and oxooils without boiling under reflux or other sample preparation and is therefore a big benefit for laboratories that have to cope with a high sample throughput. The standards EN 15168 and DIN 53240-3 relay on the same analysis method as in ASTM E1899.

The hydroxyl number is an important sum parameter for quantifying the presence of hydroxyl groups in a chemical substance. As a key quality parameter, it is regularly determined in various polymers like resins, paints, polyesterols, fats and solvents. Unlinke other standards, ASTM E1899 works pyridine-free and without refluxing at elevated temperatures for a longer time. It is performed at room temperature, requires only a small sample size, is applicable to extremely low hydroxyl numbers (<1 mg KOH/g sample) and can be performed fully automatically. This Application Note describes the potentiometric determination of the hydroxyl number in 1-octanol and polyethylene glycol according to ASTM E1899, EN 15168 and DIN 53240-3. Using the OMNIS DIS-Cover technique all sample preparation steps can be fully automated. Moreover, the use of an OMNIS Sample Robot allows parallel analysis of multiple samples. The average time per analysis for one sample is thus reduced from approximately 24 min to 12 min., increasing productivity in the laboratory considerably.