Synthesis and Characterization of Polyurethanes from Residual Palm Oil with High Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acid Oils as Additive.

Javier Chavarro Gomez,Mohd Noriznan Mokhtar,Min Min Aung,Rabitah Zakaria,Robiah Yunus

doi:10.3390/polym13234214

Abstract

In the effort to produce renewable and biodegradable polymers, more studies are being undertaken to explore environmentally friendly sources to replace petroleum-based sources. The oil palm industry is not only the biggest vegetable-oil producer from crops but also one the biggest producers of residual oil that cannot be used for edible purposes due to its low quality. In this paper the development of biopolymers from residual palm oil, residual palm oil with 10% jatropha oil, and residual palm oil with 10% algae oil as additives were explored. Polyols from the different oils were prepared by epoxydation with peroxyacetic acid and alcoholysis under the same conditions and further reacted with poly isocyanate to form polyurethanes. Epoxidized oils, polyols and polyurethanes were analyzed by different techniques such as TGA, DSC, DMA, FTIR and H-NMR. Overall, although the IV of algae oil is slightly higher than that of jatropha oil, the usage of algae oil as additive into the residual palm oil was shown to significantly increase the hard segments and thermal stability of the bio polyurethane compared to the polymer with jatropha oil. Furthermore, when algae oil was mixed with the residual palm oil, it was possible to identify phosphate groups in the polyol which might enhance the fire-retardant properties of the final biopolymer.

Highlights

Each year around the world, a large amount of polyurethanes (PU) are produced with a wide range of applications
The free fatty acid (FFA) contents (%) of the residual palm oil (RPO), jatropha oil (JO) and algae oil (AO) are 11.21–12.57, 2.12–2.23 and 11.85–11.91 respectively while the acid values based on palmitic acid are 46.44–48.89, 12.4–12.75 and 46.46–48.83 respectively
Polyester polyols and polyurethane were prepared from recovered palm oil, recovered palm oil with 10% jatropha oil, and recovered palm oil with 10% algae oil as additive

Summary

Introduction

Each year around the world, a large amount of polyurethanes (PU) are produced with a wide range of applications. In the past few years, several researchers have turned back their attention to the development of biopolyurethane from vegetable oils due to straightforward processing, biodegradability and renewability of the raw material. Semi-dry oils such as soy bean [5] and sunflower [3] was shown to produce polyurethane with similar characteristics to petroleum-based rigid PU and non-drying oils such as cottonseed oil [6], castor oil [7] and refined palm oil [8] have been used for the development of foams and elastomers by different polymerization methods with the inclusion of additives. The high cost of vegetable oils (especially from dry and semi-dry oils) and the competition with edible purposes limit their full implementation

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