Rigid polyurethane foams based on a rapeseed oil polyoL and their modifications with glycerol and cellulose

M.A. MOSIEWICKI; P. ROJEK; S. MICHAłOWSKI; M. I. ARANGUEN; A. PROCIAK

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Simposio; BALTIC POLYMER SYMPOSIUM; 2015

Polyurethanes can offer a wide variety of properties that can be useful in several applications. In general, the reactives used for their production are derived from the petroleum industry [1]. The search of renewable resources as replacement of synthetic raw materials in the production of polymers has grown considerably in the last decades, due to environmental aspects and interest in sustainable development. In particular, vegetable oils are interesting because of advantages such as wide availability at low cost. They consist of triglyceride molecules with three unsaturated fatty acid chains able to be chemically reacted in order to obtain monomers for the polymer industry [2]. Specifically, the reaction of the double bonds of triglycerides to incorporate hydroxyls groups by means of different reaction paths has been studied [3-5]. One of the most reported methods, is the reaction of the carbon-carbon insaturations to introduce hydroxyl groups through epoxidation with peroxiacids followed by oxirane ring-opening with different alcohols like diethylenglycol [5]. The structure of the resulting oil based polyol depends on the chemical modification method and the distribution and position of the carbon-carbon double bond in the fatty acid chain of the oil. The aim of this work is synthesizing a rapeseed oil based polyol to be further used in the production of polyurethane rigid foams using water as a reactive blowing agent. Commercial microcellulose (MC) was used as a filler, while glycerol was used as a reactive modifier that allowed to increase the crosslinking density and to improve the mechanical properties of the foams. The characterization of the foams have included apparent density measurements, thermal conductivity tests, water absorption, morphological characterization and compression tests. The results showed that the rigidity and glass transition temperature increase with the incorporation of MC and glycerol to the foam formulation, as well as the water absorption and the fragility of the cell walls of the foams.A considerable increase of foam compression strength, can be achieved by the modification of the polyurethane with 5 wt. % of glycerol.References1.Chian, K. S., Gan, L. H., J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 1998, 68, 509-515.2.Khot, S. N.; Lascala, J. J.; Can E.; Morye S. S.; Williams G. I.; Palmese G. R.; Kusefoglu, S. H.; Wool, R. P. J. Appl. Polym. Sci, 2001, 82, 703-723.3.Mosiewicki, M. A., Casado, U., Marcovich, N. E., Aranguren, M. I. Polym. Eng. Sci. 2009, 49, 685-692. 4.Petrovic, Z. S. Polym. Rev. 2008, 48, 109.5.Rojek, P., Prociak, A. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2012, 125, 2936-2945.