UV photocatalyzed polyurethane formulations for controlled foam generation

Abstract

Polymeric foams are used across a wide range of applications from insulation to tissue engineering.

However, finely tuning their morphologies for property control remains challenging due to the difficulty of decoupling the foaming and the solidification. To achieve this decoupling, we use here an external stimulus to trigger the solidification of polyurethane foams. Our original strategy relies on the use of a photobase generator (OXTA-DBU), which, via the release of a cyclic amidine upon irradiation at the appropriate wavelengths, acts as a photolatent catalyst for the hydroxyl-isocyanate addition reaction.

The response of the resulting bulk formulations to UV irradiation is characterized via the use of photorheology. Then, using a purpose-designed millifluidic circuit, these initially liquid formulations are continuously mixed and foamed. The obtained foam templates are solidified through UV irradiation. The structure of the resulting solid polyurethane foams is studied via X-ray microtomography to analyze the impact of irradiation conditions on the repartition of the polymeric matrix across the foam, providing a qualitative insight into the solidification kinetics of the foam. We thus demonstrate that the use of OXTA-DBU allows for the generation of well-controlled polyurethane foams whose final morphology can be adjusted through irradiation conditions. We also show that formulations mixing the photobase generator with a more classical catalyst provide access to an even wider range of solidification kinetics which, in turn, enables a finer tuning of the solid foam morphology.

Physical property-based screening of polyurethane foam for gold enrichment from rock gold ores
Cang Gong, Shunxiang Wang, Yang Chen +3
RSC advances24 Oct 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY-NCFull textGeneral chemistryEurope PMC
Soft foam polyurethane recycling and foaming in reactive extrusion using partial aminolysis and a latent cross-linking chemistry
Morgane Pingret, Pascal Tiquet, Pierre Piluso
ACS Sustainable Resource Management4 Aug 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textMaterials & polymersHAL
Effect of a Pre‐Treatment on the Mechanical and Acoustic Properties of Recycled Ground Tire Rubber/Polyurethane Foam Composites
Y Nezili, I El Aboudi, A Mdarhri +4
Polymer Engineering and Science29 Oct 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full text2 citedMaterials & polymers General physicsHAL
Cobalt Photocatalyzed Carbonylation Reactions in Flow: From Mass-Transfer to Light-Limited Regimes
Mónica Martínez-Aguirre, Rowan M. Bailey, Janusz Siwek +5
ChemRxiv2 Nov 2026PreprintLicence not statedGeneral chemistryChemRxiv
Dinuclear Gold Photocatalyzed Atom-Transfer σ-Bond Metathesis and Sequential Heck-type Coupling
Sourav Pal, Pintu Kumbhakar, Theertha Babu T +2
ChemRxiv18 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textOrganic chemistryChemRxiv

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@article{cottecarluer2026photocatalyzed,
  title = {{UV photocatalyzed polyurethane formulations for controlled foam generation}},
  author = {Guillaume Cotte-Carluer and Leandro Jacomine and Hanieh Mansouri and Antoine Egelé and Damien Favier and Wiebke Drenckhan-Andreatta and Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette},
  journal = {RSC Advances},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1039/d6ra03376h},
  url = {https://univoak.hal.science/hal-05754278v1},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - JOUR
TI  - UV photocatalyzed polyurethane formulations for controlled foam generation
AU  - Guillaume Cotte-Carluer
AU  - Leandro Jacomine
AU  - Hanieh Mansouri
AU  - Antoine Egelé
AU  - Damien Favier
AU  - Wiebke Drenckhan-Andreatta
AU  - Aurélie Hourlier-Fargette
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/11
JO  - RSC Advances
DO  - 10.1039/d6ra03376h
UR  - https://univoak.hal.science/hal-05754278v1
AB  - Polymeric foams are used across a wide range of applications from insulation to tissue engineering.  However, finely tuning their morphologies for property control remains challenging due to the difficulty of decoupling the foaming and the solidification. To achieve this decoupling, we use here an external stimulus to trigger the solidification of polyurethane foams. Our original strategy relies on the use of a photobase generator (OXTA-DBU), which, via the release of a cyclic amidine upon irradiation at the appropriate wavelengths, acts as a photolatent catalyst for the hydroxyl-isocyanate addition reaction.  The response of the resulting bulk formulations to UV irradiation is characterized via the use of photorheology. Then, using a purpose-designed millifluidic circuit, these initially liquid formulations are continuously mixed and foamed. The obtained foam templates are solidified through UV irradiation. The structure of the resulting solid polyurethane foams is studied via X-ray microtomography to analyze the impact of irradiation conditions on the repartition of the polymeric matrix across the foam, providing a qualitative insight into the solidification kinetics of the foam. We thus demonstrate that the use of OXTA-DBU allows for the generation of well-controlled polyurethane foams whose final morphology can be adjusted through irradiation conditions. We also show that formulations mixing the photobase generator with a more classical catalyst provide access to an even wider range of solidification kinetics which, in turn, enables a finer tuning of the solid foam morphology.
SN  - 2046-2069
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite