The propoxylation of fatty amines is a crucial reaction in the industrial production of surfactants. Catalyzing this reaction has so far proven unrewarding due to severe selectivity losses. In this study, rigid foam‐structured polyurethane, i. e., an extremely inexpensive material which has not been used as a catalyst ever before, shows an unprecedented catalytic activity during the in‐flow propoxylation of octylamine. The foam cells contain bound hydroxyl and amine groups that result in a bifunctional catalyst able to destabilize the ring structure of propylene oxide, and thus catalyze further propoxylation of fatty amines. An outstanding 10‐fold reduction of the residence time without any loss of selectivity is achieved with respect to the un‐catalyzed process. Furthermore, the polyurethane foam showed stable time‐on‐stream performance up to 10 bar and 110 °C.

中文翻译：

---

聚氨酯作为脂肪胺丙氧基化的新型催化剂

脂肪胺的丙氧基化是表面活性剂工业生产中的关键反应。迄今为止，由于严重的选择性损失，催化该反应是无用的。在这项研究中，硬质泡沫结构聚氨酯​​，即。例如，一种极其廉价的材料，以前从未用作催化剂，它在辛胺的流丙氧基化过程中显示出前所未有的催化活性。泡沫孔含有结合的羟基和胺基，它们导致双功能催化剂能够使环氧丙烷的环结构不稳定，从而催化脂肪胺的进一步丙氧基化。与未催化工艺相比，可将停留时间显着降低10倍，而不会损失任何选择性。此外，