Abstract
Polyurethane/attapulgite (PU/ATT) nanocomposites derived from castor oil were prepared by incorporation of 8 wt % ATT, acid-treated ATT, and KH560-treated ATT. The effects of three ATTs (ATT, acid-ATT, and KH560-ATT) on the comprehensive properties of PU/ATT nanocomposites were systematically investigated. The results showed that the incorporation of 8 wt % of three ATTs could produce an obvious reinforcement on the castor oil-based PU and that the silane modification treatment, rather than the acid treatment, has the more effective reinforcement effect. SEM images revealed the uniform dispersion of ATT in the PU matrix. DMA confirmed that the storage modulus and glass transition temperature (Tg) of PU/ATT nanocomposites were significantly increased after blending with different ATTs. For PU/KH560-ATT8 nanocomposites, the thermal stability of the PU was obviously enhanced by the addition of KH560-ATT. In particular, 8 wt % KH560-ATT loaded castor oil-based PU nanocomposites exhibit an obvious improvement in tensile strength (255%), Young’s modulus (200%), Tg (5.1 °C), the storage modulus at 25 °C (104%), and the initial decomposition temperature (7.7 °C). The prepared bio-based PU materials could be a potential candidate to replace petroleum-based PU products in practical applications.
Highlights
X-ray diffraction (XRD) has been a useful tool for characterizing the structure of clay and its nanocomposites
The results indicated that the crystal structure of ATT did not alter or distort after acid-treated and silylated surface modification
PU nanocomposites based on castor oil were prepared by incorporating neat ATT, acid-ATT, the typical decomposition steps [53,54]: the first loss step (230–368 ◦ C) corresponds to degradation and KH560-ATT into the PU matrix
Summary
The use of renewable vegetable oil-based polyols to replace the commercial petroleum-based polyether or polyester polyols in the synthesis of bio-based polyurethane (PU) [1,2,3,4,5] has attracted great public attention as functional materials in many applications, such as thermoplastic [6,7], thermosets elastomers [8,9], adhesives [10,11,12], coatings [13,14,15], foams [16,17], medical fields [18,19] and nanocomposites [20,21]. This may be attributed to the intrinsic low OH value of castor oil and low cross-linking density of PU matrix [25,26].
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