Preparation and Characterization of North Sumatera Natural Zeolite Polyurethane Nanocomposite Foams for Light-weight Engineering Materials

Abstract

Normally, the mechanical properties of commercial polyurethane foams are relatively low when used for light-weight engineering materials such as for low-energy automotive construction. In the present work, light-weight polyurethane nanocomposite foams were prepared using natural zeolites of North Sumatera as filler. The zeolite fillers were prepared using ball milling technique and their particle size distributions were characterized using particle size analyzer. The nanocomposite foams, prepared using in-situ reaction of polypropylene glycol and toluene diisocyanate were then characterized for Tensile, morphology properties and XRF analysis. Data in this paper only tensile, morphology properties and XRF analysis. The compositions of nanofiller in polyurethane matrices were varied from 5% - 25wt%. It was found that tensile strength and Modulus of elasticity (MOE) of polyurethane nanocomposites containing 20% of zeolite were 2,9MPa and 11.1MPa respectively, which showed higher values when compared to those of unfilled polyurethane. The presence of nanozeolite filler has funtioned as reinforcement in nanocomposites through polar-polar interaction between the filler surfaces with the matrix. Furthermore, the SEM result did not show any agglomeritation of the nanozeolites fillers in the polyurethane matrix, which may be due to better interaction between the matrix and the filler.