Variation of physical properties of rigid polyurethane foams synthesized from renewable sources with different commercial catalysts

In this work, rigid polyurethane foams were synthesized from renewable sources using different catalysts to study their effect on the mechanical, thermal, chemical and surface properties of the foams. A commercial foam pattern was used as the reference pattern to compare the aforementioned properties. Concentrations of the commercial catalysts were optimized to obtain foams with similar mechanical properties to the commercial foam. Morphological characterization of the foams was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to investigate the characteristic functional groups. Thermal characterization was performed by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Furthermore, mechanical properties were also determined by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The optimum system of catalysts was composed of 33 Lv and triethanolamine, which achieved a foam with better performance than the commercial foam.