Preparation and modification of water-blown porous biodegradable polyurethane foams with palm oil-based polyester polyol

Abstract

Water-blown porous polyurethane foams were synthesized by one-shot foaming method. The effect of modification of polyurethane system with different content of newly synthesized palm oil-based polyester polyol (PPP) on the physical, chemical, mechanical and biodegradation properties of polyurethane foams were investigated. The resulting polyurethane foams were characterized by ATR-FTIR, Instron Universal Testing Machine, STA and SEM. The modification of polyurethane with PPP improved pore size and cell compactness, tensile strength, elastic modulus and elongation at break of the polyurethane foams. In terms of biodegradation properties, all the modified polyurethane foams were susceptible to enzymatic degradation. The degradation of modified polyurethane did not incur significant changes in pH of the medium used. After 7days of enzymatic treatment, polyurethane prepared with 100wt.% and 75wt.% of PPP maintained 90% and 70% of the tensile strength, respectively. The current work demonstrated that the modification of water-blown porous polyurethane formulation with PPP allow improvement in physical and mechanical properties as well as tunable degradation rate with sustained mechanical strength, which may suitably use in soft and rigid tissue engineering applications.