Polyurethane foams based on modified tung oil and reinforced with rice husk ash I: Synthesis and physical chemical characterization

V. RIBEIRO DA SILVA; M.A. MOSIEWICKI; M.I. YOSHIDA; M. COELHO DA SILVA; P.M. STEFANI; N.E. MARCOVICH

POLYMER TESTING

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Año: 2013 vol. 32 p. 438 - 445

0142-9418

A chemically modified tung oil was used as the main polyol component in the formulationof viscoelastic (low resilience) polyurethane foams. Rice Husk Ash (RHA), a residue fromthe rice process industry, was chosen to be incorporated as rigid filler in these materialsbecause of its high silica content.Water was used as blowing agent in order to increase thegreen nature of the reinforced foams. Physico-chemical and thermal properties of the neatand reinforced foams were measured and analyzed. RHA addition leads to noticeablechanges in several properties, mainly thermal conductivity, density and foam morphology,even at the low filler content used in this work. Although the thermal stability was almostunaffected by ash content, a stabilizing effect of the inorganic filler was identified, sincethe residual char was higher than predicted from theoretical calculations.