Effects of N-Octadecane as PCM on the Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Polyurethane Foams Utilizing Coconut-Based Polyols

Abstract

The utilization of vegetable oil in producing bio-based polyol, as an alternative replacement to petroleum-based polyol in making polyurethane (PU) foam has gained a lot of interest due to its finite supply and low production cost. In this study, bio-based polyol using coconut oil as raw material produced PU foam as thermal insulation material. The vegetable oil-based polyol was prepared using a two-step method, while PU foams were prepared by the free-rise method. In order to enhance the thermal properties of the produce PU foams, phase change material (PCM) was added to the PU foam formulation. FTIR spectra result showed peaks at 2920 cm-1 and 2850-1, which signifies the CH2 asymmetric stretching, indicating that n-octadecane was successfully incorporated into PU foams. Moreover, heat flow meter (HFM) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) show PU foam with 1% n-octadecane shows better thermal properties than other produced PU foams. Furthermore, the universal testing machine (UTM) result shows an enhancement in the mechanical properties of the produced PU foam. These results demonstrate that the addition of n-octadecane to the PU foam formulation improved the mechanical properties of PU foams while enhancing their thermal properties.