Design of biobased non-isocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) foams blown with water and/or ethanol

Abstract

A promising process to design non-isocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) foams has been developed. The transurethane polycondensation reaction between fatty biscarbamates, fatty diols, and diamines was used to synthesize a biobased aminotelechelic NIPU oligomer. The prepared oligomer (hard phase) was mixed with an amino-telechelic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, soft phase) and then reacted with a biosourced tri-epoxide molecule as crosslinking agent, in the presence of water/ethanol mixtures as physical blowing agents. The crosslinking reaction was followed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and rheometry. The foams can be obtained in less than 2 hours at 95 °C. The prepared foams exhibited cell diameters ranging from 130 to 3090 μm, as well as densities ranging from 55 to 950 kg/m3. Their thermal stability thresholds were above 300 °C. They displayed glass transition temperature values ranging from –20 to –18 °C, and low values of the Young modulus ranging from 2.0・103 to 5.7・103 Pa. The hysteresis loss, the recovery time, and the firmness of these foams were dependent on the PDMS content and/or the morphological parameters.

Keywords

• transurethane
• polycondensation
• foam
• nipu
• processing technologies