Abstract
Bio-based polyurethane materials with abundant open-cells have wide applications because of their biodegradability for addressing the issue of environmental conservation. In this work, open-cell rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) were prepared with bio-based polyols (BBPs) derived from the liquefaction of peanut shells under different post-processing conditions. The influences of the neutralization procedure and filtering operation for BBPs on the foaming behaviors, density, dimensional stability, water absorption, swelling ratio, compressive strength, and microstructure of RPUFs were investigated intensively. The results revealed that a small amount of sulfuric acid in the polyols exhibited a great impact on physical and chemical properties of RPUFs while the filtering operation for those polyols had a slight effect on the above properties. The RPUFs prepared from neutralized BBPs possessed higher water absorption, preferable dimensional stability and compression strength than that fabricated from the non-neutralized BBPs. Moreover, the prepared RPUFs exhibited preferable water absorption of 636–777%, dimensional stability of <0.5%, compressive strength of >200 KPa, lower swelling rate of ca. 1%, as well as uniform cell structure with superior open-cell rate, implying potential applications in floral foam.
Highlights
Rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) are extensively used in numerous engineering applications, such as building and tank thermal insulation, structural support material, and composite wood due to their light weight, considerable specific strength, and superior heat insulation, etc. [1,2,3].The major components for synthesizing rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) are isocyanate and polyols obtained basically from the petroleum industry
bio-based polyols (BBPs) with hydroxyl numbers in the range of 200–550 mg KOH·g−1 would be suitable alternatives to replace the petroleum-based polyols for RPUFs synthesis [30]
Theprepared bio-based polyurethane (RPUFs) with high ofopen-cell ratio were successfully with rigid bio-based polyols (BBPs)foams derived from the liquefaction peanut shells under different post-processing conditions
Summary
Rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) are extensively used in numerous engineering applications, such as building and tank thermal insulation, structural support material, and composite wood due to their light weight, considerable specific strength, and superior heat insulation, etc. [1,2,3]. Foams prepared from BBPs could be used in thermal insulating materials with properties comparable to those of commercial products [8,11]. Agricultural residues such as crop straws and hulls, containing abundant polysaccharide and lignin with ample phenolic hydroxyl groups, are valuable biomass resources, which could be effectively converted into BBPs, as reported previously [31,32]. This study was to synthesize the open-cell and bio-based RPUFs by using the liquefied products of peanut shell (defined as bio-based polyols, BBPs) as one of the dominant raw materials, where the BBPs were treated with four post-processing conditions.
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