Standard Practice for Polyurethane Raw Materials: Determining Hydroxyl Number of Polyols by Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy

5.1.1 It is necessary to know the hydroxyl number of polyols in order to formulate polyurethane systems.

5.1.2 This practice is suitable for research, quality control, specification testing, and process control.

5.2.1 Factors affecting the NIR spectra of the analyte polyols need to be determined before a calibration procedure is started. Chemical structure, interferences, any nonlinearities, the effect of temperature, and the interaction of the analyte with other sample components such as catalyst, water and other polyols needs to be understood in order to properly select samples that will model those effects which cannot be adequately controlled.

5.2.2 Calibrations are generally considered valid only for the specific NIR instrument used to generate the calibration. Using different instruments (even when made by the same manufacturer) for calibration and analysis can seriously affect the accuracy and precision of the measured hydroxyl number. Procedures used for transferring calibrations between instruments are problematic and are to be utilized with caution following the guidelines in Section 16. These procedures generally require a completely new validation and statistical analysis of errors on the new instrument.

5.2.3 The analytical results are statistically valid only for the range of hydroxyl numbers used in the calibration. Extrapolation to lower or higher hydroxyl values can increase the errors and degrade precision. Likewise, the analytical results are only valid for the same chemical composition as used for the calibration set. A significant change in composition or contaminants can also affect the results. Outlier detection, as discussed in Practices E1655, is a tool that can be used to detect the possibility of problems such as those mentioned above.