Polyols, hydroxyl groups, reaction with

All the oligo-polyols are used to build the polyurethane high MW structure in a reactive process, as a consequence of the oligo-polyols terminal hydroxyl group reaction with polyisocyanates. The reactivity of oligo-polyols in polyurethane fabrication is a very important practical characteristic. Reactivity is a measure of the reaction rate of an oligo-polyol with an isocyanate in order to make the final polyurethane polymer. One practical method is the measurement of viscosity, in time, by Brookfield Viscosity Test (BVT), especially used to determine the reactivity of ethylene oxide capped polyether polyols. Figure 3.12 shows the effect of the primary hydroxyl content upon the reactivity of ethylene-oxide capped polyether triols of MW of 5,000 daltons. 

Preparation of Poly (propylene ether) Polyols. The polymerization of propylene oxide with zinc hexacyanocobaltate complexes in the presence of proton donors results in the production of low-molecular-weight polymers. Table V shows the variety of types of compounds that have been found to act this way. Since these compounds end up in the polymer chains, it seems reasonable to call them chain initiators. Thus, in essence, each of these compounds is activated by the catalyst to react with propylene oxide to form a hydroxylpropyl derivative. Thereafter, the reaction continues on the same basis, with the proton of the hydroxyl group reacting with further propylene oxide. This sequence is shown here with 1,5-pentanediol as the initiator. The hydroxyl... 

It has been observed that reactions of dibutylstannylene acetals of terminal 1,3-diols, or polyols having primary hydroxyl groups free, with t-butyldimethylsilyl chloride yield primary silyl ethers, even for such compounds as methyl a-D-mannopyranoside, where the expectation (see Table VI) for most reactions is for substitution to occur on a secondary oxygen atom.85 88 These observations probably arise from a very large kinetic preference for reaction with primary oxygen atoms, that is, ki2 and k]2 > k2 and K22, in Fig. 12, rather than a rearrangement from initially formed secondary silyl ethers. 

The very low glass transition temperature (Tg) of polysiloxane chains (Tg = -123 °C) is a very attractive property for using these kinds of polymeric chains to build an oligo-polyol structure with terminal hydroxyl groups [1]. The resulting structure called a polysiloxane polyol gives, after reaction with diisocyanates, polyurethane (PU) elastomers which conserve their high elasticity at very low temperatures [1]. 

The unsaturated vegetable oils, having double bonds but without hydroxyl groups, are transformed by various chemical reactions into polyols, which by reaction with isocyanates are transformed into PU. 

Figure 4 Reaction of polyol hydroxyl group with isocyanate group to form a urethane. Copyright 2003 by Taylor Francis Group, LLC...

Some commercial polyurethane elastomers are in fact segmented copolymers prepared by reaction of a diisocyanate with a prepolymer polyol (hydroxyl group functionality 2) and a short-chain diol (e.g. butan-l,4-diol)... 

Reaction of olefin oxides (epoxides) to produce poly(oxyalkylene) ether derivatives is the etherification of polyols of greatest commercial importance. Epoxides used include ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, and epichl orohydrin. The products of oxyalkylation have the same number of hydroxyl groups per mole as the starting polyol. Examples include the poly(oxypropylene) ethers of sorbitol (130) and lactitol (131), usually formed in the presence of an alkaline catalyst such as potassium hydroxide. Reaction of epichl orohydrin and isosorbide leads to the bisglycidyl ether (132). A polysubstituted carboxyethyl ether of mannitol has been obtained by the interaction of mannitol with acrylonitrile followed by hydrolysis of the intermediate cyanoethyl ether (133). 

The epoxidation is generally conducted in two steps (/) the polyol is added to epichlorohydrin in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst (stannic chloride, boron triduoride) to produce the chlorohydrin intermediate, and (2) the intermediate is dehydrohalogenated with sodium hydroxide to yield the aliphatic glycidyl ether. A prominent side-reaction is the conversion of aliphatic hydroxyl groups (formed by the initial reaction) into chloromethyl groups by epichlorohydrin. The aliphatic glycidyl ether resins are used as flexibilizers for aromatic resins and as reactive diluents to reduce viscosities in resin systems. 

---