Antistatic polyurethane foams and carpet backings made therefrom

Abstract

The present invention relates to rendering antistatic polyurethane foams, particularly polyurethane foams which are used as textile coating such as carpet backings. The antistatics are terminally esterified or etherified polyalkylene oxide adducts of the general formula R--(CHR'--CH.sub.2 O)n--CHR'--CH.sub.2 R" in which R and R", which can be identical or different, denote a linear or branched alkoxy radical with 1 to 22 C atoms, an alkylaryloxy radical with 10 to 18 C atoms, an acyloxy radical with 1 to 18 C atoms or a halogen radical, R' denotes hydrogen or a methyl radical, and n denotes a whole number between 2 and 20. The antistatic finishing of the polyurethane foams is preferably effected by addition of the alkylene oxide adducts to the starting materials of the polyurethane foam. Preferably, the antistatic agents are dissolved in the diol component of the polyurethane. The so finished polyurethane foams have an antistatic content of 5 to 30 weight % relative to the polyurethane. The invention also extends to the antistatic finished polyurethane foams.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.