Naphthalene-1.5-Diisocyanate as a Building Block for High Performance Polyurethane Elastomers

For many years naphthalene-1.5-diisocyanate (NDI) has been used in the polyurethane elastomer VULKOLLAN. NDI differs from the widely used diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and tolulene diisocyanate (TDI) with regard to its rigid structure and high melting point, resulting in sig nificantly higher melting points of the corresponding NDI/glycol hard seg ments. Combined with special polyadipate diols and crosslinked with glycols, NDI has proven to be the key building block to ensure the high property profile of the VULKOLLAN elastomer system. The NDI elastomer combines the elasticity of an ether based material with the toughness of an ester based elastomer.