Improving the Hydrophilicity of Flexible Polyurethane Foams with Sodium Acrylate Polymer

Abstract

Hydrophilic, flexible polyurethane (FPU) foams made from Hypol prepolymers are capable of retaining large amounts of water and saline solutions. The addition of different catalysts and surfactant agents to Hypol JM 5008 prepolymer was assayed to obtain a foam with good structural stability and elasticity. The combination of three catalysts, stannous octoate and two amine-based ones (Tegoamin 33 and Tegoamin BDE), and the surfactant Niax silicone L-620LV allowed to synthesize a foam with a homogeneous cell size distribution, exhibiting the highest saline absorption capacity (2.4 g/gram of foam) and almost complete shape recovery, with up to a 20% of remaining deformation. Then, superabsorbent sodium acrylate polymer (PNaA) was added to the FPU foam up to 8 pph. The urine absorption capacity of the foam was increased about 24.8% by incorporating 6 pph of PNaA, absorbing 17.46 g of saline solution per foam gram, without any negative impact on the rest of the foam properties. All these properties make the synthesized foams suitable for corporal fluids absorption applications in which elasticity and low-density are required.

Sustainable Wheat Protein Biofoams: Dry Upscalable Extrusion at Low Temperature

“…Note, however, the still very large pores in the ABC sample, despite some collapse. The densities of the samples presented so far fall within the group of high-density foams, , and are higher than in common low-density foams of polyurethane, polyethylene, and polystyrene. ,− …”

“…The densities of the samples presented so far fall within the group of high-density foams, 34 , 35 and are higher than in common low-density foams of polyurethane, polyethylene, and polystyrene. 17 , 36 − 38 …”

Recovery of Waste Polyurethane from E-Waste—Part I: Investigation of the Oil Sorption Potential

“…Many studies on PUF were devoted to the improvement of the performance of products deriving from primary materials, tested on oils and several waste fluids, through the chemical treatment of the porous surface, or applying special synthesis processes [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Recently, numerous scientific studies focused on how to recover waste PUF by chemical or thermochemical recycling processes [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], but, to our knowledge, there is not yet any consistent research about the absorbing performances of waste PUF that can be achieved without altering its chemical structure.…”