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Development of high-performance biodegradable rigid polyurethane foams using full modified soy-based polyols Zheng Fang, Chuanhong Qiu, Dong Ji, Zhao Yang, Ning Zhu, JingJing Meng, Xin Hu, and Kai Guo J. Agric. Food Chem., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b05342 • Publication Date (Web): 06 Feb 2019 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on February 7, 2019
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Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
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Development of high-performance biodegradable rigid polyurethane
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foams using full modified soy-based polyols
3
Zheng Fanga,†, Chuanhong Qiub,†, Dong Jia, c, Zhao Yangd, Ning Zhua, Jingjing Menga, Xin Hue, Kai Guoa, f,*
4
a. College
5
b. School
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, PR China.
6
c. Yangzi
Petrochemical Company Ltd., SINOPEC, Nanjing 210048, PR China.
7
d. College
of Engineering, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, PR China.
8
e. College
of Materials Science And Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, PR China.
9
f.
of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, PR China.
State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, PR China.
10
† These two authors contributed equally to this work.
11
Abstract
12
Fossil fuel resources depletion and growing concern about environmental issues have risen demand for newly sustainable
13
biomaterials. To address this challenge, a new type of biodegradable and environmental rigid polyurethane foam named as
14
RPUF-M from full modified soy-based polyols have been synthesized without the addition of petroleum-based polyols. Based
15
on the analysis of structure-activity relationship, a new kind of bio-based polyurethane polyols named as Bio-polyol-M was
16
designed and synthesized directly from epoxidized soybean oil and a novel polyhydroxy compound in a three-step continuous
17
microflow system. In the continuous microflow system, the epoxidation of soybean oil, the synthesis of GLPO and the ring-
18
opening reaction of epoxidized soybean oil were coupled. Another soy-polyol named as Bio-polyol-B was synthesized in Batch
19
mode. In comparison with Bio-polyol-B, Bio-polyol-M had a higher hydroxyl number and a much lower viscosity. Besides, the
20
RPUF-M also possessed a series of advantages over the rigid polyurethane foam named as RPUF-B from Bio-polyol-B
21
KEY WORDS : Soy-polyol, Rigid polyurethane foam, Microflow system.
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Introduction
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Currently, it is a hot research topic to replace petrochemical base materials with biomass materials.
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Royal Dutch Shell has estimated that biomass would provide 30% of world’s chemicals and fuels by 2050.
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Bio-based polyurethane, a green and environmentally-friendly polyurethane, produced by vegetable oil
26
polyols instead of petroleum-based polyols will have a large application prospect. Polyurethanes (PUs),
27
usually prepared from compounds containing two or more reactive hydroxyl groups (diols or polyols)
28
and isocyanates1, are a vital group of polymers which exhibit a versatile range of properties and
29
applications2. In the commercial products made of polyurethane materials, the most important one is
30
rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs), which have been indispensable materials in refrigeration,
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transportation, packaging, automotive industry, and building construction3, accounting for about 23% of
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all polyurethane production on account of the characteristics such as low density, low thermal
33
conductivity, low moisture permeability, and high strength-to-weight ratio.4
34
One of the most serious problems in large-scale production of RPUFs is that they depend on petroleum
35
oil as their raw material for its elementary compositions: hydroxyl-containing polyols5. Currently, fossil
36
fuel resources depletion and growing concern about environmental issues have led researchers to pay
37
more attention to the preparation of RPUFs from renewable resources6. In these bio-renewable
38
feedstocks, vegetable oil is a kind of annually renewable natural material which was cheap and obtained
39
easily, therefore it have shown excellent potential as renewable raw material in the production RPUFs 7.
40
However, it was difficult for almost all these vegetable oil-based polyols commercially available to foam
41
independently without the adding petroleum-based polyols, due to their low hydroxyl number and high
42
viscosity, which make the corresponding foaming material have a number of disadvantages, for instance,
43
high processing difficulty, poor mechanical property, and poor stability (Figure 1). As it was reported in
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the published literature, the preparation of bio-based RPUFs based on the isocyanate route required
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more than 50 percent of petrochemical polyether polyols8 or other enhancing components9 such as
46
cellulose microfibers, nanoclays, rice husk ash and etc.. Therefore, development of high-quality
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biodegradable rigid polyurethane foams using 100% high quality vegetable oil-based polyols is urgently
48
needed. Previous work: Petroleum-based polyols or other enhancing components
Chemically modified
Vegetable oil
Foaming
Vegetable oil-based polyols
Rigid polyurethane foams
Our work: EpoxidatioHydroxylation
Foaming
Microreaction technology Soybean oil
Soybean oil-based polyol
a novel soy-based polyol
49
Rigid polyurethane foams
green synthetic method in microflow system
RPUFs synthesized from 100% modified soy-based polyol
50
Figure 1. Synthesis of RPUFs from vegetable-based polyols.
51
Soybean oil, composed of triglyceride molecules containing unsaturated fatty acids, has been most
52
valuable as starting material for polyol conversion due to its several advantages compared to other
53
vegetables oils, such as volume stability, price stability and versatility for chemical modification10. The
54
soy-based polyols are usually obtained by the following method: hydroformylation, transesterification,
55
epoxidation followed by hydroxylation, or ozonolysis followed by hydrogenation.11
56
The method we chose in this study was Epoxidation-Hydroxylation, for it was effective to introduce a
57
vicinal secondary alcohol via epoxidation of double bonds in unsaturated fatty acids, subsequently
58
nucleophilic ring opening of the epoxide group chains(Scheme 1). Several literatures have reported the
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synthesis of soy-based polyols by this method12 and corresponding commercial products prepared by
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this method have become available5. However, these synthesis methods have many problems. For
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example, the dangling chains, as a result of saturated fatty acids, act as plasticisers that reduce the PU
62
rigidity and lower the glass-transition temperature13. Besides, reacting in conventional flasks can cause
63
some problems, such as increased risks from peroxide and long reaction time. Beyond that, the
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ineluctable oligomeric side reaction would consumed newly generated hydroxyl groups, which resulted
65
in lower hydroxyl numbers and higher viscosities of polyols , and all these characteristics above were not
66
unfavorable for RPUF preparation14. While researchers have made several advancements, such as
67
increasing PU rigidity with introducing phenyl ring to the polyol structure15 and modifying the foams with
68
addition of lignin16, rice husk ash9b, cellulose microfibers and nanoclays9a, it was also difficult for the soy-
69
based polyols to foam without the addition of petroleum-based polyols. O O R1
O n
O O O
R1
R2
O
Soybean oil
n
O
m
O O
Epoxidation
O
O
O
O
m
R1
RH
O
OH
OH O
RH :
OH
O O
+
70
R2
O n
m
O O
m
Soy-based polyols O
R1
R
O
O
R2
Epoxidized soybean oil
Our Work:
O O
Hydroxylation
O
OH n
Side reaction (Oligomerisation)
O R2
OH
OH OH OH
O
R
71
Scheme 1. Synthesis of soy-based polyols.
72
Micro reaction technology, a new method in chemical synthesis, has attracted much attention over
73
traditional batch chemistry. Based on process intensification, excellent heat and mass transferensures,
74
reactions are completed quickly and efficiently with less energy consumption. Thus, the accurate control
75
of the reaction process is ensured, and the side effects are greatly reduced. In addition, other
76
advantages such as operational safety, extremely fast mixing, and precise residence time control, also
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help it garner positive responses from researchers.17 In order to solve some problems in traditional
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synthetic methods, we used a continuous micro-flow system in this study. Through microreaction,
79
vegetable oil-based polyols were synthesized rapidly and efficiently. In previous study, our research
80
group have synthesised a variety of high quality epoxidized soybean oil by a continuous micro-flow
81
system, which laid a foundation for developing high-quality polyols. The results show that microreaction
82
technology is advantageous to the preparation of high-quality polyols.18
83
In this study, in order to improve all sorts of the defects brought by conventional polyols, phenyl group
84
were introduced into the polyol structure, accordingly, a novel polyhydroxy compound labeled GLPO was
85
synthesized based on the equimolar reaction of glycerine with styrene oxide. GLPO, which was designed
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to reduce the cross-linking and guarantee a certain hydroxyl value, only had one primary hydroxyl group.
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At the same time, the epoxidized soybean oil was obtained by the epoxidation of soybean oil; then,
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GLPO was involved in the ring-opening with epoxidised soybean oil. Both of the three-part operations
89
are completed in a continuous microflow system. By optimization of the reaction parameters, a polyol
90
product with higher hydroxyl number and moderate viscosity was obtained. Furthermore, the
91
corresponding RPUFs were also prepared for the evaluation of the effect of soy-based polyols on the
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performance of foams. In order to characterize the samples, several test experiments were conducted.
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The experiment items mainly included fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy
94
(SEM), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
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Meterials and method
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Reagents
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All reagents used in this study were from commercial suppliers and were used without further
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processing unless otherwise stated.
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Preparation of soy-polyol in micro-flow system
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The process in microflow system included three parts: the epoxidation of soybean oil, styrene oxide
101
reacting with glycerine simultaneously, and finally the hydroxylation of epoxidised soybean oil (ESO) with
102
synthesized polyols (GLPO). The complete flow chart was showed in Scheme 2. Our group has reported
103
the preparation of epoxidized soybean oil earlier19, and this mature synthesis method was directly
104
adopted in this research. The concrete proportion, flow velocity, residence time and reaction
105
temperature of the stock in the pump I and the pump II were referred to the previous literature.18b
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Meanwhile, in the other two plunger pumps, the flow velocity of styrene oxide in the pump III was
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3.2mL/min, and the other mixture containing glycerine and potassium hydroxide in the pump IV had a
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flow velocity of 3.5 mL/min. In the microreactor B, the residence time was 5min and reaction
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temperature was set to 130°C. Next, the synthesized GLPO were mixed with ESO and transferred into the
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microreactor C. Finally, the mixed compounds were held for 8 min at 75°C. After the stratification of oil-
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water separator, the oil phase (soy-polyol ) was collected while the aqueous phase was expelled.
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In the last step of hydroxylation procedure, the sulfuric acid remained during the epoxidation procedure
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was used as a catalyst and ring-opener. The obtained crude soy-polyol was posttreated according to the
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method described in the literature. 18b The purified soy-polyol was named as Bio-polyol-M
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Table 1. Rigid polyurethane foam formulation.
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Ingredients
Formulation
soy-
AK-
polyol
8803
100
2.0
cyclopentane
Polycat®8
H2O
Polycat®41
KAc solution (30 wt %)
13
2.6
1.2
1.0
0.1
(parts by weight) I Soybean oil
O
Aqueous phase
Mixer
II
H2O2/HCOOH H2SO4(5wt%) EDTA-2Na(3wt%)
A
Epoxidized Soybean oil Mixer
III
OH
OH OH + KOH OH
C
OH O
OH
Oil-water Separator
Mixer
IV
B Soy-based polyols Pump
116
Sandwich Microreactor
117
Scheme 2. Schematic diagram of soy-polyol preparation process.
118
Preparation of GLPO in batch mode
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The GLPO in batch mode was synthesized as follows: 35.46g (0.38mol) glycerine and 0.53g potassium
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hydroxide was added into a 500mL flask and stirred at 75°C till potassium hydroxide was totally
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dissolved. Then 42g (0.35mol) styrene oxide was slowly dripped at 130°C and continued reacting for
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10hous. After reaction, the reaction mixture was poured into a separatory funnel when it is hot. The
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crude product was washed successively with dilute hydrochloric acid and saturated salt water until the
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water phase had a pH of 6.0. Then, the organic solvent in the crude product was evaporated, and further
125
purified by porous resin adsorption method.
126
Preparation of soy-polyol in batch mode
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The soy-polyol in batch mode was synthesized as follows: 19.24g commercially available ESO, 21.76g
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GLPO, and 0.60mL concentrated sulfuric acid were added into a 500mL flask, stirred at 65°C and reacted
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for 12h. After the reaction solution was cooled to 25°C, the aqueous phase was separated. The further
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post-treatment was consistent with the method mentioned above, and corresponding soy-polyol named
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as Bio-polyol-B was finaly obtained.
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Preparation of rigid polyurethane foam
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The foaming process was based on the literature reported previously.18 On the basis of the formulation
134
in Table 1, the RPUFs were prepared using the method of free-rise foaming. As per the kind of soy-polyol
135
uesd in the foaming process, the foams were named as RPUF-M and RPUF-B, respectively.
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Results and discussion
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In the case of hydroxylation, oligomerization is inevitable.21 Thus, the experimental hydroxyl numbers
138
were inconsistent with the theoretical hydroxyl numbers.18b In the microflow system, the optimization of
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hydroxylation process was carried out by studied the effect of variation of reaction condition on the
140
hydroxyl number and the epoxy content of soy-polyols, namely, the variation of potassium hydroxide
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concentration, residence time, and temperature, as shown in Figures 2(a), (b) and (c).
142
Effect of the potassium hydroxide concentration on performance of soy-polyol in micro-flow system
143
In this research, sulfuric acid was selected as the catalyst in situ epoxide ring-opening for economic and
144
security reasons. In the three-part continuous flow reaction, sulfuric acid was involved in the catalysis of
145
two-part of the reaction,which respectively were the epoxidation of soybean oil and the hydroxylation of
146
ESO. Because no sulfuric acid was added in the last step, the amount of potassium hydroxide in the
147
synthesis of GLPO was crucial, too much or too little could affect the reaction. The reaction temperature
148
of microreactor C was 65°C and the residence time of ESO ring-opening was 10min as the initial reaction
149
conditions in the microflow system.
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Figure 2. (a), (b) and (c) are effects of potassium hydroxide concentration, residence time and reaction
153
temperature on the soy-polyols performance, respectively.
154
As illustrated in Figure 2(a), with the increase of potassium hydroxide, the epoxy content rose after
155
showing the first fall trend, while the change of hydroxyl number was opposite, which peaked at a
156
dosage of 1.8wt %. It was not hard to understand that moderate concentration of potassium hydroxide
157
could catalyzed the synthesis of GLPO efficiently, as well as neutralize part of sulphuric acid. However,
158
overmuch potassium hydroxide consumed excess sulphuric acid, thus affected the next hydroxylation. A
159
large amount of sulfuric acid could greatly shorten the time for the ring opening reaction.21
160
Simultaneously, as the sulfuric acid concentration increased, the oligomerization reaction was also
161
enhanced, for the reaction rate of oligomeric ether formation is first-order under concentrated acid
162
conditions.22
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Effect of residence time on performance of soy-polyol in micro-flow system
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The concentration of potassium hydroxide was 1.8wt % and the reaction temperature of microreactor C
165
was 65°C as the initial reaction conditions. By adjusting the volume of the microreactor, the residence
166
time was changed from 4min to 14min. As it was shown in Figure 2(b), with the extension of the
167
residence time, the epoxy content tended to decrease first and then rise, which was opposite to that of
168
hydroxyl number. It is not hard to understand that the residence time was too short to complete the
169
reaction, therefore, the epoxy content decreased in a short time. In this research, the hydroxylation
170
process was a solvent-free reaction, due to its heterogeneity, it relied heavily on the high mass transfer
171
efficiency of microreactors.18 Much longer residence time requires larger microreactors, which
172
weakened the mass transfer efficiency, therefore, the epoxy content eventually increased.
173
Effect of temperature on performance of soy-polyol in micro-flow system
174
According to the optimized reaction conditions above, the optimal concentration of potassium hydroxide
175
was 1.8wt % and the optimal residence time was 8min. To explore the effects of temperature, a
176
temperature gradient from 45°C to 95°C was taken. As it was shown in Figure 2(c), with the temperature
177
gradually increased, the hydroxyl number increased first and then dropped slightly, while the epoxy
178
content decreased. Just as anticipated, higher temperatures reduced the viscosity of oil, and made
179
mixture more compatible. In spite of the epoxy and ring-opening reactions are exothermic process, with
180
the increase of temperature, the reaction rates of oligomerization and ring-opening were all accelerated.
181
When the temperature reached 85°C, the soy-polyol had the highest hydroxyl number of 319mg KOH/g,
182
at the same time, the epoxy content was 0.20%, and the viscosity was 9765mPa·s. However, when the
183
temperature was 75°C, the hydroxyl number of soy-polyol synthesised was sightly reduced to 315mg
184
KOH/g, but it had a significantly lower viscosity of 7048mPa·s, as well as a higher epoxy content of 0.51%.
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In consideration of lower energy and viscosity, the optimal reaction temperature was set at 75°C. The
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soy-polyol obtained under the optimal conditions was named as Bio-polyol-M.
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Characterization of soy-polyols properties
188
Figure 3 showed the FTIR spectra of the Bio-polyo-B and Bio-polyol-M. As it can be seen from the figure
189
3, the peak at 757 cm-1 corresponded to –CH out-of-plane bending vibrations in aromatic ring. To Bio-
190
polyol-M, the hydroxyl peak enhancement at 3420 cm-1 demonstrated that Bio-polyol-M contained much
191
more hydroxyl groups, which was consistent with the experimental data in Table 2. Additionally, the Bio-
192
polyol-M peak at 913 cm-1 corresponded to the epoxy group which indicated Bio-polyol-M had a higher
193
epoxy content.
194 195
Figure 3. FTIR spectra of Bio-polyol-M and Bio-polyol-B.
196
As shown in Table 2, compared with Bio-polyol-M, Bio-polyol-B, had a higher visocity and a lower
197
hydroxyl number, which indicated that oligomerization was more likely to occurred in the batch mode.
Hydroxyl number
Acid number
Epoxy content
Viscosity
(mg KOH/g)
(mg KOH/g)
(%)
(mPa▪s)
Bio-polyol-M
315
1.37
0.51
7048
Bio-polyol-B
219
1.25
0.19
23054
polyol
198
Table 2. General properties of Bio-polyol-M and Bio-polyol-B.
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Properties of soy-based rigid polyurethane foams
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Figure 4 showed the cross-sectional SEM images of RPUF-M and RPUF-B. As was shown in the images, no
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matter what type of polyol, they all possessed closed-cell structures. It can be seen from the SEM image
202
of RPUF-M that the cell size was approximate hexagon and relatively uniform, and most cells were
203
complete and closed. In contrast, RPUF-B had more broken cells and the cell structures were not so
204
uniform. Viscosity of soy-polyol is a crucial factor during the foam cell structure formation. Higher
205
viscosity of soy-polyol would make difficulties in mixing foam ingredients, as well as had an effect on the
206
formation and distribution of the foam cells.16a, 23 Irregular cell structures and the increase of broken cells
207
led to the change of the cell morphology, which was caused by the higher viscosity of polyol which
208
affecting the process of cell nucleation.
209 210
Figure 4. (a),(b) are SEM images of RPUF-M and RPUF-B, respectively.
211
The properties of RPUF-M and RPUF-B were summed up in the Table 3. In comparison with RPUF-B,
212
RPUF-M possessed higher compression strength and density. For RPUFs, the morphology and density of
213
foams will have a certain effect on the compressive strength of them.24 In this study, the specific
214
compression strength was used to analyze the factors that affected the foam compression strength
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accurately. In comparison with RPUF-B, RPUF-M possessed a higher specific compression strength, this
216
might be a result of its uniform cell structure.
217
Table 3. Properties of RPUF-M and RPUF-B.
foam
a
Density
Compression strength
Specific compression strength (kPa
k value
(kg/m3)
▪m3/kg) a
(kPa)
(mW/(m ▪K))
RPUF-M
34.1
199
5.84
20.2
RPUF-B
35.5
149
4.20
24.6
the ratio of “compression strength” to “density”
218
k value is acrucial parameter for RPUFs, which is positively correlated with average cell size and foam
219
density, and negatively correlated with closed-cell content.8 According to Table 3, it can be seen
220
intuitively, RPUF-M possessed a much lower k value, largely because of its smaller foam density, uniform
221
and smaller cell size, as well as the higher closed-cell content.
222
Additionally, dimensional stability is another significant parameter. As it was shown in Table 4, for both
223
RPUF-M and RPUF-B, the changes of dimension comformed to standard specifications (3% according to
224
the literature24b).
Dimensional stability (%)
Thermal character T5%
T10%
T50%
800 °C
Tg (°C
(°C )
(°C )
(°C )
(residual/%)
)
-0.39
245.6
277.2
334.7
12.68
197.5
-0.82
216.2
234.5
300.7
2.34
194.9
foam
length
width
thickness
RPUF-M
0.29
0.28
RPUF-B
0.65
0.63
225
Table 4. Dimensional stability and thermal properties of RPUF-M and RPUF-B.
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Figure 5(a) showed the TGA weight loss curves of RPUF-M and RPUF-B, and Table 4 summarized the
227
corresponding data. The decomposition of rigid polyurethane foams includes the dissociation of
228
urethane bonds, the decomposition of soft polyol segments and the further decomposition of segment
229
fragments.25 Within the range of 150°C, the two foams both exhibited slight weight losses because of the
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evaporation of water. As the temperature increased, in the temperature range of 150°C to 800°C , RPUF-
231
M showsd better thermal stability than RPUF-B .
232 233
Figure 5. (a) TGA weight loss curves of RPUF-M and RPUF-B , (b) Tan δ vs temperature of RPUF-M and
234
RPUF-B.
235
Tan δ was directly tested through DMA, and the glasstransition temperature (Tg) was calculated from the
236
measured data. As can be seen from Table 4 and Figure 5(b), RPUF-M had a higher Tg as a result of its
237
greater cross-linking degree.
238
Conclusions
239
In this study, a green and novel soy-polyol named as Bio-polyol-M was successfully synthesized using a
240
three-step continuous microflow system and the reaction conditions were optimized. In addition,
241
another soy-polyol named as Bio-polyol-B was synthesized in batch mode. Based on the analysis of
242
structure-activity relationship, polyhydroxy was introduced into the oil structure. As a result, the
243
performance of the products has been greatly improved. In comparison with Bio-polyol-B, Bio-polyol-M
244
had a higher hydroxyl number and a much lower viscosity attributed to fewer oligomerization occurred
245
in the microflow system. Furthermore, the corresponding soy-based RPUFs named as RPUF-M and RPUF-
246
B, respectively, were successfully prepared and petrochemical polyols were completely replaced by soy-
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polyols during the preparation process, and PU-m also possessed a series of advantages, such as higher
248
compression strength, lower k value ,better dimensional stability, slightly higher Tg, and great thermal
249
stability. The experimental results show that continuous microflow system is green and efficient for the
250
synthesis of high-performance soy-polyols.
251
Conflicts of interest
252
There are no conflicts to declare.
253
Acknowledgements
254
The research has been supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China
255
(2016YFB0301501); The National Natural Science Foundation of China (21776130); The Jiangsu
256
Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Bio-Manufacture (XTD1821 and XTD1802); The Top notch
257
Academic Programs Project of Jangsu Higher Education Institutions.
258
Notes and references
259
1
260 261
Chen, R.; Zhang, C.; Kessler, M. R. Polyols and polyurethanes prepared from epoxidized soybean oil ringopened by polyhydroxy fatty acids with varying oh numbers. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 132, 1-10.
2
a) Xu, J.; Jiang, J.; Hse, C.Y.; Shupe, T.F. Preparation of polyurethane foams using fractionated products in
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liquefied wood. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 1-7;
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b) Cinelli, P.; Anguillesi, I.; Lazzeri, A. Green synthesis of flexible polyurethane foams from liquefied lignin.
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Eur. Polym. J. 2013, 49, 1174-1184;
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c) Petrovic, Z. Polyurethanes from vegetable oils. Polym. Rev. 2008, 48, 109-155.
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a) Nikje, M. M. A.; Noruzian, M.; Moghaddam, S. T. Investigation of Fe3O4/AEAP supermagnetic
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nanoparticles on the morphological, thermal and magnetite behavior of polyurethane rigid foam
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A novel route to produce high-quality soy-based polyol by using a three-step continuous microflow system was reported and high-performance biodegradable rigid polyurethane foam from full modified soy-based polyols was synthesized without the addition of petroleum-based polyols 80x39mm (220 x 220 DPI)
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