ABSTRACT
Lithium chloride was used as an additive to systematically alter the phase separation characteristics and was hence used as a probe to examine the urea phase connectivity in a series of formulations based on flexible slabstock polyurethane foams. Several complimentary characterization techniques were employed to characterize urea phase connectivity which was observed to be present at different length scales. SAXS, TEM, and AFM were collectively used to study the size, presence, and dispersion of the urea aggregates commonly observed in slabstock foams, thus giving insight into the macro-connectivity of the urea phase. WAXS was used to assess the regularity in packing of the hard segments constituting the urea microdomains, or the urea phase micro-connectivity. DSC and DMA indicated that the addition of LiCl led to dispersing the urea microdomains in a manner which restricted the soft segment mobility as observed by a broadening in the soft segment glass transition.
