This Artikel was adopted and translated from a contribution to the "Aktuelle Wochenschau", an online-periodical of the German Association of Chemists "Gesellschaft deutscher Chemiker"
By Drs. Reinhard Halpaap, Ulrich Meier-Westhues und Frank Richter, Bayer MaterialScience AG
Polyurethane chemistry began in 1937 when Heinrich Rinke first prepared 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and Otto Bayer (Fig. 1) developed the diisocyanate polyaddition process [1,2].
Initial work in the 1940s was aimed at polyurethane fibers. The first polyurethane foams were produced as novel materials a little later. Some 50 years ago, in 1957, the first polyurethane coatings were obtained when Otto Bayer and his co-workers realized that alkyd resins could be modified by means of diisocyanates to give coatings with significantly improved properties.
The breakthrough for polyurethanes in the surface coatings area came when low-monomer polyisocyanates were developed and introduced. Since then, polyurethane coatings, also known under the synonym DD coatings (Desmodur® and Desmophen®), have undergone rapid market development. Continued above-average growth is also expected in coming decades due to the considerable potential for innovation in this sphere of chemistry.
Fig. 1: Prof. Otto Bayer,
inventor of polyurethane chemistry
References:
[1] DRP 728981 (1937) I. G. Farben; O. Bayer, Angew. Chem. 59, 257 (1947)
[2] D. Dieterich, Chemie in unserer Zeit, 24, 135 (1990)
Next pages:
The chemistry of isocyanates
Polyisocyanate crosslinkers
Properties of polyurethane coatings
Appllicatios of polyurethane coatings
The future of polyurethanes
