Synthesis and design of polyurethane and its nanocomposites derived from canola‐castor oil: Mechanical, thermal and shape memory properties

Abstract

The recent global pandemic and its tremendous effect on the price fluctuations of crude oil illustrates the side effects of petroleum dependency more evident than ever. Over the past decades, both academic and industrial communities spared endless efforts in order to replace petroleum-based materials with bioderived resources. In the current study, a series of shape memory polymer composites (SMPC's) was synthesized from epoxidized vegetable oils, namely canola oil and castor oil fatty acids (COFA's) as a 100% bio-based polyol and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) as an isocyanate using a solvent/catalyst-free method in order to eventuate polyurethanes (PU's). Thereafter, graphene oxide (GO) nanoplatelets were synthesized and embedded in the neat PU in order to overcome the thermomechanical drawbacks of the neat matrix. The chemical structure of the synthesized components, as well as the dispersion and distribution levels of the nanoparticles, was characterized. In the following, thermal and mechanical properties as well as shape memory behavior of the specimens were comprehensively investigated. Likewise, the thermal conductivity was determined. This study proves that synthesized PU's based on vegetable oil polyols, including graphene nanoparticles, exhibit proper thermal and mechanical properties, which make them stand as a potential candidate to compete with traditional petroleum-based SMPC's.

Recent Advances of Flexible Strain Sensors Based on Conductive Fillers and Thermoplastic Polyurethane Matrixes

“…Conductive materials are available in different states and geometries, such as powders, liquid, printing inks, and fibers or film-shaped TPU composites. , To incorporate conductive materials into the TPU, numerous methods have been employed, including spinning, coating, printing, casting, filtration, ultrasonication, , and so on. Electrospinning and wet spinning are the most frequently used spinning methods for the direct fabrication of composite fibrous networks.…”

Carbon nanotube reinforced biobased poly(urethane urea) covalent adaptable network composite

“…9 Plant oils are thought as an optimal component for flexible segments of PU due to the long and flexible fatty acid structure and multiple reactions sites. [10][11][12] Castor oil (CO), an inexpensive, renewable, and non-edible vegetable oil readily available in the commercial market, can be directly used as a polyol for sustainable PU production. 13 The presence of long flexible fatty chains provides CO-based PU with excellent flexibility.…”

“…Considering the environmental pollution and resource scarcity, there has been extensive research on developing sustainable polyurethanes from biomass resources like biobased polyols, 5 lignin, 6–8 and vegetable oils 9 . Plant oils are thought as an optimal component for flexible segments of PU due to the long and flexible fatty acid structure and multiple reactions sites 10–12 . Castor oil (CO), an inexpensive, renewable, and non‐edible vegetable oil readily available in the commercial market, can be directly used as a polyol for sustainable PU production 13 .…”

A review of fatty epoxide ring opening reactions: Chemistry, recent advances, and applications

“…However, there are notable exceptions to this general rule. For instance, hydroxy containing ricinoleic acid is used to ring open ESO (Dai et al, 2020; Kiatsimkul et al, 2008) and ECO (Dehghan et al, 2020) to give monomers with additional hydroxy functionality for subsequent PU synthesis. Analogously, shorter‐chain hydroxy acids, such as lactic and glycolic acids (Caillol et al, 2012), are used to generate polyols with additional hydroxy functionality but without the additional dangling chains associated with ricinoleic acid ring opened materials.…”