Cellulose nanocrystal reinforced acylglycerol-based polyurethane foams

GANGOITI, M.V.; PERUZZO, P.J.

EXPRESS POLYMER LETTERS

BUDAPEST UNIV TECHNOL & ECON

Lugar: Budapest; Año: 2020 vol. 14 p. 638 - 650

1788-618X

This work presentsthe preparation of polyurethane composite foams based on castor oil or modifiedcanola oil as polyol, and cellulose nanocrystals (CN) as nanofiller (0.10, 0.25and 0.50 wt% of CN content). The bio-based composites were characterized by FourierTransform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), DifferentialScanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), and mechanicalproperties. The SEM images showed that composite foams had smaller cell sizesand more irregular than those observed for unloaded samples. FTIR revealed thatthe urethane/urea bond formation was influenced by the incorporation of CN, andwas dependent on the polyol used in the formulation. The incorporation of CNdid not affect the thermal stability, but the density and mechanical propertieschanged differently depending on the selected polyol. These results suggestedthat the acylglycerol structure affects the role of CN in the formulation.Also, the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cells showed that the cellviability of polyurethane bionanocomposite foams increased significantly incomparison to the unloaded material.