Chemistry & History
The Man Behind Your Pillow
Otto Bayer; The German scientist who invented polyurethane aka foam.
Otto Bayer was an industrial chemist who worked for IG Farben. He was the head of the research group. In 1937 he discovered the polyaddition to create polyurethanes.
The photo above will show up everywhere when you type in his name. So I figured it’d be the most appropriate one to use.
The reaction that takes place:
The foam in question in this video is what is used to make seats, cushions, and armrests. Pretty much anything you can think of that needs to be flexible, soft, and comfortable.
Even memory foam pillows are made like this. However, the chemistry is slightly different.
The Chemistry
Polyols and isocyanates…
These sound like very difficult terms, and you probably wonder what isocyanate is and what is a polyol.
An isocyanate is a highly reactive, low molecular weight chemical. The reactive molecular bonding on an isocyanate is -NCO. This will…
