Abstract
It is well known that the traditional synthetic polymers, such as Polyurethane foams, require raw materials that are not fully sustainable and are based on oil-feedstocks. For this reason, renewable resources such as biomass, polysaccharides and proteins are still recognized as one of the most promising approaches for substituting oil-based raw materials (mainly polyols). However, polyurethanes from renewable sources exhibit poor physical and functional performances. For this reason, the best technological solution is the production of polyurethane materials obtained through a partial replacement of the oil-based polyurethane precursors. This approach enables a good balance between the need to improve the sustainability of the polymer and the need to achieve suitable performances, to fulfill the technological requirements for specific applications. In this paper, a succinic-based polyol sample (obtained from biomass source) was synthesized, characterized and blended with cardanol-based polyol (Mannich-based polyol) to produce sustainable rigid polyurethane foams in which the oil-based polyol is totally replaced. A suitable amount of catalysts and surfactant, water as blowing reagent and poly-methylene diphenyl di-isocyanate as isocyanate source were used for the polyurethane synthesis. The resulting foams were characterized by means of infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to control the cross-linking reactions, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to evaluate the morphological structure and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermal conductivity to evaluate thermal degradation behavior and thermal insulation properties.
Highlights
Sustainable resources such as biomasses can be used as a valuable and inexhaustible feedstock to produce several chemicals, as they are naturally renewable
The mixture of succinic acid/1,4-butanediol at a given molar ratio is loaded into the reactor, where the temperature is adjusted by using a heating oil bath, regulated by an automatic heating cuff: temperature is measured using a thermocouple placed in the reactor vessel
The synthesized bio-based polyhydroxyls were characterized through FTIR and 1 HNMR analysis to assess their chemical structure
Summary
Sustainable resources such as biomasses can be used as a valuable and inexhaustible feedstock to produce several chemicals, as they are naturally renewable. As reported by the European report on the market of bio-based chemicals [13], differently from the other bio-based molecules, succinic acid, as it can be found in several biomass sources, is widely present in the “green molecules market”, being estimated in the global market at around 47.5 kt/a in 2014 and constantly growing For this reason, researches addressed to verify and optimize the use of this “unit” as an alternative “raw material” for polymers production (such as polyurethanes) with thermal, mechanical and chemical–physical properties comparable to the synthetics ones, are strongly encouraged because it remains an issue. The chemical, morphological and thermal properties of produced samples were thoughtfully assessed
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