The urethane polyaddition reaction was discovered about 80 years ago. Since then this chemistry has further developed into many industrial applications and grown into a multibillion dollar business. The versatility of polyurethanes is founded in a broad spectrum of properties which can be achieved ranging from flexible to rigid and from compact to foamed by choosing suitable combinations of starting materials, the key raw materials being polyol and isocyanate. While on the industrial megaton scale the number of isocyanate building blocks is quite limited, there is a huge choice of polyols and additives available to achieve tailor‐made polymer properties for various applications. For the future development of polyurethanes, the two major trends, i) the further improvement of all sustainability characteristics and ii) digitalization in product and process development, are discussed. The former is reflected in four main areas: the production of improved insulation materials to reduce energy consumption; production of raw materials with an improved carbon footprint; odor and emission reduction in indoor applications; and recycling of production and consumer waste. The present review concludes with a few examples as to how digitalization can change and accelerate research and development work in the future.

中文翻译：

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聚氨酯的当前和未来趋势：工业角度

大约80年前发现了氨基甲酸酯加成反应。从那时起，这种化学方法进一步发展为许多工业应用，并发展成为数十亿美元的业务。聚氨酯的多功能性是建立在广泛的性能基础之上的，这些性能可以通过选择合适的起始材料组合来实现，从柔性到刚性，从致密到发泡，关键原料是多元醇和异氰酸酯。尽管在工业级兆吨级上，异氰酸酯结构单元的数量非常有限，但仍有大量的多元醇和添加剂可供选择，以实现量身定制的聚合物特性，以用于各种应用。对于聚氨酯的未来发展，两大趋势是 i）讨论了所有可持续性特征的进一步改善，以及ii）产品和过程开发中的数字化。前者体现在四个主要方面：生产改进的绝缘材料以减少能耗；生产具有改善的碳足迹的原材料；室内应用中的气味和排放减少；以及生产和消费废物的回收。本综述以数字化如何在未来如何改变和加速研发工作为例进行了总结。以及生产和消费废物的回收。本综述以数字化如何在未来如何改变和加速研发工作为例进行了总结。以及生产和消费废物的回收。本综述以数字化如何在未来如何改变和加速研发工作为例进行了总结。