Investigation of the Properties of Flexible Polyurethane Foams Exposed to the Conditions of a Waste Recycling Site

Abstract

The recycling of polyurethane foam (PUF) waste has been the subject of a fairly large number of studies (refs. 1 and 2). These deal chiefly with the processing of industrial PUF waste and its use as initial feedstock for the production of polyurethanes and polyurethane foams. At the same time, a significant proportion of spent waste is sent to dumps or to recycling sites. Since the ageing and recycling of PUF waste under these conditions have been little studied, the task of the present work was to investigate the properties of flexible PUFs when exposed to the conditions of a waste recycling site.

Ageing of Flexible Polyurethane Foams and Determination of their Service Life under Different Climatic Conditions

“…To assess the structural changes in polyurethane foams during heat and moisture ageing, an IR spectral analysis of specimens was carried out [8]. It turned out that the spectrum of the initial PPU-E-35-0.8 is characterised by a 1729 cm -1 band (the sum of bands of C=O of the polyester and urethane), a 1637 cm -1 band (the band of C=O of the urea groups), a 1538.9 cm -1 band (the overall amide 2 band of the urethane and urea groups), and a 1230 cm -1 band (the band of the urethane group); the 1433, 1175, and 1124 cm -1 bands relate to absorption of the polyester.…”

“…On the other hand, short-term properties and service life depend in different ways on the structure of the polyurethane foams and can vary in a wide range [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Therefore, the choice of fl exible polyurethane foams capable of long-term ageing resistance under prescribed climatic conditions is an important and urgent problem.…”

Multi-Stage Recycling Induced Morphological Transformations in Solid-State Microcellular Foaming of Polystyrene

“…Recycling of plastic waste and waste plastic foam is a major focus point of scientists and researchers now a day. Many researchers focused their research works recycling polyurethane waste and converting it tin to useful products [11–13]. Polypropylene has many applications due to its low cost, converting of polypropylene waste in to foam using extruder has been reported [14].…”