Isocyanate emissions from pyrolysis of mattresses containing polyurethane foam

This study examined the emissions of powerful asthmatic agents called isocyanates from small-scale pyrolysis experiments of two common foams employed in mattress production such as flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF) and viscoelastic memory foam (VMF). A nitrogen atmosphere and five different temperatures, 300, 350, 400, 450 and 850 °C, were selected to carry out the experiments in order to evaluate the worst possible conditions for thermal degradation. A similar trend for both materials was found. At lower temperatures, diisocyanates were the most important products whereas at 850 °C monoisocyanates, and mainly isocyanic acid released mainly from the thermal cracking of diisocyanates evolved directly from the polymer chains. The total yields of isocyanates were in the range of 1.43-11.95 mg/m³ for FPUF at 300-850 °C and 0.05-6.13 mg/m³ for VMF, 300-850 °C. This difference could be a consequence of the lower amount of isocyanates employed in the VMF production which was confirmed by the nitrogen content of the foams, 5.95% FPUF vs. 3.34% in VMF. Additionally, a qualitative search for so far unknown isocyanates was performed in samples from the pyrolysis of FPUF at 300, 400 and 850 °C. It was confirmed that six different aminoisocyanates at 300 °C were evolved, whereas at 400 and 850 °C only five of them were detected. The general trend observed was a decrease of the aminoisocyanate levels with increasing pyrolysis temperature.