“Vegetable Oil Based Polymers Reinforced with Wood Flour”

M. MOSIEWICKI; U. CASADO; N.E. MARCOVICH; M.I. ARANGUREN

Cracow, Poland

Conferencia; IX internacional Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials; 2007

Liquid polymer precursors were synthesized from renewable vegetable materials (vegetable oils, ex: linseed oil, castor oil, tung oil) to be utilized in the preparation of polyurethanes and their wood flour composites. The precursors are highly hydroxylated materials (polyols) that are reacted with isocyanates to obtain crosslinked polyurethanes, which properties can be varied depending on the raw materials and the reacting conditions of the vegetable oil modification and/or the final crosslinking1, 2. The synthesis of the polyols is based on the epoxydation of the unsaturations of the triglycerides that form the vegetable oil. Then, the epoxy groups are converted to OH groups, which leads to a highly hydroxylated branched material. The synthesis is continued with an alcoholysis by triethanolamine or glycerol to obtain the working polyol3, 4. Their final characteristics were determined by analytical techniques Composites were manufactured using dried pine woodflour (Buenos Aires, Argentine) and microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel PH-101, FMC BioPolymer, USA), which is a micro-particulate reinforcement. The dispersion of the fillers was highly favored by the high compatibility of the matrix and filler. The dynamic mechanical and mechanical properties of the samples were measured. The addition of the rigid fillers (macro and micro fillers) increased the storage modulus of the composite and as expected the increase was more important at temperatures above the glass-rubber transitions.