Date of Award
Fall 12-13-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Chemistry (MSChem)
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
Dr.Ram K. Gupta
Second Advisor
Dr. Siam Khamis
Third Advisor
Dr. Timothy Dawsey
Abstract
Polyurethane (PU) is a versatile polymer that forms when isocyanate compounds react with compounds containing hydroxyl groups, typically polyols. It can exist in various forms, including rigid foams, flexible foams, coatings, adhesives, elastomers and composites, and is known for its durability, flexibility, rigidity and resistance to abrasion, chemicals, and weathering. PU finds extensive applications in industries ranging from construction and automotive to furniture and footwear. When it comes to vegetable oil-based PU composites, derived from renewable resources, offer eco-friendly alternatives in industries seeking sustainable materials. These composites demonstrate promise in applications for enhanced mechanical properties. This work investigates the PU based composite materials synthesized from bio polyol (safflower oil polyol). In this research work, composite materials were synthesized by using vegetable oil, TiO2 as an inorganic filler to improve mechanical properties. However, PU composites are quite combustible and may spread flames rapidly. As an economical, environmentally friendly, and effective alternative to non-halogenated flame retardants (FRs), silicon & phosphorus-based chemical substances are used to reduce the flammability of PU composite. This thesis aims to incorporate environmentally friendly components into the safflower oil polyol, which is utilized to make PU composite. In addition, the industrial use of PU composites made from safflower oil is restricted by its limited load-bearing capacity and lack of thermal stability. These restrictions were overcome in two ways: (i) the crosslinking density was raised by adding more hydroxyl groups using conventional chemical techniques, and (ii) the thermal stability of the PU composite was enhanced by adding three eco-friendly FRs. Bio based composite materials were cast as a film and were used to study further. Among all the synthesized materials, DPES has better flame-retardancy as compared to DPAE and APTES because it gave decreased trend with burning time and weight loss from control to 5 wt.%, DPES-2wt% has shown highest compression strength (32MPa) and Tensile strength (7.5 MPa) which is proving the good mechanical strength of composite material. When it comes to thermal behavior, the same material has shown thermal degradation at the highest temperature range around 430°C. Thus how, composite materials are mechanically strong and thermally stable. Chemical solubility in two different solvents (water and toluene) test was also performed to know chemical resistivity of composites. Results depicted good chemical resistivity for both the solvents. This work illustrated that FRs based on silicon and phosphorus can lower the flammability of polyurethanes derived from safflower oil without significantly altering their physical properties.
Recommended Citation
Chaudhary, Smit, "BIO-BASED POLYURETHANE COMPOSITES USING SAFFLOWER OIL, SILICON & PHOSPHORUS-BASED FLAME-RETARDANTS" (2024). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 823.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/823
