Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Bayer MaterialScience llc researcher Karl Haider told the Gordon Research Conference 21-26 June 2009 at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, that BMS's catalysts for Impact polyol production allow scientists to produce building blocks that were not previously achievable with conventional catalysts.
Impact technology is a more efficient way to produce many industry standard polyether polyols; the technique reduces waste, energy and carbon dioxide equivalents, in addition to significantly improving productivity of the reaction, Haider said.
But the presentation -- Double Metal Cyanide Catalysis: Enabling Novel Polyoxyalkylene Based Block Copolymers -- focussed on the way that IMPACT technology offers a route to novel building blocks for polyurethane and related polymers, thus creating entirely new polymers, not possible with traditional methods.
Haider, who is innovation manager at BMS in North America, discussed several new polymers possible via this route, with:
• a low surface energy, for anti-graffiti or medical applications;
• incorporating natural, renewable feedstocks like soya oil or carbon dioxide; and
• with built-in fire retardance.
"IMPACT technology is giving scientists the ability to make building blocks for polyurethane that aren't readily made by other catalysts," said Haider, in a BMS statement. "There are a whole host of utilities for this catalyst. In our presentation, we spread the word about the opportunities for new materials using this technology. We want to see what the academic audience can produce with this new tool."
"
