Rigid polyurethane or polyisocyanurate foams, polyester polyols used to produce them, and methods for formulating the foams are disclosed. The foams comprise a reaction product of a polyisocyanate, a polyester polyol, water, a surfactant, a catalyst and optional ingredients. The polyester polyols comprise a phthalimide-containing polyacid, a phthalimide-containing polyol, or a combination thereof. Rigid foams produced from the polyester polyols exhibit higher thermal stability and/or greater intumescence when compared with foams made from other polyester polyols. The phthalimide-containing polyester polyols should allow formulators to improve the flammability performance of rigid foams with reduced levels of flame retardants and/or lower index and should facilitate the production of thinner insulation panels.

An amorphous polyester or copolyester composition comprises the reaction product of a crystalline or semicrystalline polyester or copolyester, optionally derived from a recycled waste stream, at least one diol or aromatic diacid or an ester of a diacid or a hydroxycarboxylic acid or a lactone or a dianhydride, and a catalyst, wherein the amorphous composition has a weight average molecular weight of at least 10,000 g/mol (polystyrene equivalent molecular weight) as measured by gel permeation chromatography.

What is described is a composition for production of rigid polyurethane foam, comprising at least one isocyanate component, a polyol component, optionally a foam stabilizer, optionally blowing agent, wherein the composition contains at least one catalyst that catalyses the formation of a urethane or isocyanurate bond, wherein the catalyst comprises salts of amino acid derivatives.

Compounds containing polymer material and a phosphorous flame protection agent on the basis of an aminomethyl bisphosphonate, a method for manufacturing the compound, the use of the flame retardant, and selected structures of the flame retardant are disclosed.

Described herein is a method for the preparation of a rigid polyisocyanate based foam, including mixing (a) polyisocyanate, (b) at least one compound having at least two hydrogen atoms reactive towards isocyanates, (c) optionally flame retardant, (d) blowing agent, (e) catalyst and (f) optionally further additives, to form a reaction mixture and reacting the reaction mixture to obtain the polyurethane based rigid foam where the compound reactive towards isocyanates (b) includes an aromatic polyetherpolyol (b2) and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of an aromatic polyesterpolyol (b1) and a polyetherpolyol (b3) different from polyether (b2). Also described herein is a rigid polyisocyanate based foam obtained from such a method and a polyol component for the production of a polyisocyanate based foam.

An isocyanate-reactive composition including: (i) at least one isocyanate-reactive compound; and (ii) a predetermined amount of at least one thixotropic modifier; and a foam-forming composition for producing a polyurethane or polyisocyanurate foam including: (A) at least one isocyanate component; and (B) at least one isocyanate-reactive component; wherein the at least one iso-cyanate-reactive component is the above isocyanate-reactive composition.

Disclosed are a heat-expandable polyvinylidene chloride microsphere and its preparation method. The preparation method comprises: by weight, dissolving 250 to 550 parts of an aqueous-phase polymerization inhibitor, 20 to 100 parts of a dispersant, and 3 to 15 parts of a co-dispersing monomer in deionized water, adjusting a pH value of the solution and cooling the solution to obtain an aqueous phase for later use; dissolving 5 to 15 parts of a cross-linking agent and 20 to 45 parts of an initiator in 1000 to 2000 parts of a mixed monomer, and cooling the solution to obtain an oil phase for later use; mixing and homogenizing the aqueous phase and the oil phase with stirring to obtain a homogenized mixed solution; adding 300 to 550 parts of a foaming agent to the homogenized mixed solution and homogenizing the resulting solution with stirring to obtain a homogenized mixed solution containing the foaming agent; reacting the homogenized mixed solution containing the foaming agent with stirring; at the end of the reaction, cooling to room temperature, filtering the resulting suspension to obtain filtrate, centrifuging and dehydrating the filtrate, and drying to obtain the heat-expandable polyvinylidene chloride microsphere product. This disclosure has the advantages of simple process and environmental friendliness, and the obtained product has good performance.

This invention relates to rigid polyurethane foams which are co-blown with a mixture of a hydrocarbon blowing agent and a halogenated olefin blowing agent. This invention also relates to a process for preparing these rigid polyurethane foams, and to an isocyanate-reactive component containing a polyol blend and the mixture of blowing agents. Phase stable isocyanate-reactive blends are also described.

The disclosure relates to thermally expandable microspheres comprising a polymeric shell surrounding a blowing agent-containing hollow core, the polymer shell comprising a carboxylate-functionalised cellulose having a glass transition temperature (Tg) of at least about 125° C. The disclosure also relates to a method for preparing such thermally expandable microspheres, comprising mixing an aqueous phase that optionally comprises an emulsifier with an organic phase that comprises an organic solvent, a blowing agent and a carboxylate-functionalised cellulose having a Tg of at about least 125° C., to form a microsphere dispersion.

Cellulose ester compositions for expanded foam applications are provided. Specifically, production of melt processed cellulose esters has historically been limited to standard extrusion, molding and solvent casting methods. A combination of cellulose ester formulation and selected blowing agents have been found to produce articles of good density and good dimensional stability for an expanded foam process using conventional polystyrene processing equipment.