Analysis of Extractable Volatile Components in Polyurethane Foam

Polyurethane foams have been analyzed by headspace, thermal desorption, mass spectrometry, or extraction followed by post analysis to investigate a variety of technical problems related to volatile species. Extraction and post analysis has been the most useful technique. It was used to determine whether foam manufacturing processes were in control. We have used this methodology to analyze for residual volatiles in twenty-one polyurethane interior automobile components obtained from an assembly plant. This methodology was also applied to study loss of volatiles from seating foam with post treatment. The method consists of methanol extraction followed by capillary gas chromatography using dual matched capillary columns and simultaneous recording of flame ionization (FID) and nitrogen phosphorous (NPD) chromatograms. Electron Impact (EI) and Chemical Ionization (CI) Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) were used to identify unknowns in the extracts of the interior automobile polyurethane components.