Blending of cyclic carbonate based on soybean oil and glycerol: a non-isocyanate approach towards the synthesis of polyurethane with high performance

Abstract

This work demonstrates the synthesis of bio-based polyurethane from soybean oil and glycerol derived highly branched structure via non-isocyanate route. The soybean oil based cyclic carbonates were synthesized by coupling of CO2 with epoxidized soybean oil. In the second step, glycerol derived highly branched cyclic carbonate was synthesized from diglycidal ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and CO2. The structure of prepared monomer was confirmed from FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectra. Then a series of non-isocyanate polyurethanes (NIPUs) were synthesized. They exhibited satisfactory mechanical properties (Tensile strength = 10.1 MPa) and thermal stability (283 °C). These results indicate the prospect of this eco-friendly approach for preparing renewable NIPU without the use of isocyanate.