posted on 2019-02-06, 00:00authored byZheng Fang, Chuanhong Qiu, Dong Ji, Zhao Yang, Ning Zhu, Jingjing Meng, Xin Hu, Kai Guo
Fossil fuel resources depletion and
growing concern about environmental
issues have raised the demand for newly sustainable biomaterials.
To address this challenge, a new type of biodegradable and environmental
rigid polyurethane foam called rigid polyurethane foams (RPUF)-M from
full modified soy-based polyols have been synthesized without the
addition of petroleum-based polyols. On the basis of the analysis
of structure–activity relationship, a new kind of biobased
polyurethane polyols called Bio-polyol-M was designed and synthesized
directly from epoxidized soybean oil and a novel polyhydroxy compound
in a three-step continuous microflow system. In the continuous microflow
system, the epoxidation of soybean oil, the synthesis of GLPO (glycerine
with styrene oxide), and the ring-opening reaction of epoxidized soybean
oil were coupled. Another soy-polyol called Bio-polyol-B was synthesized
in batch mode. In comparison to those of Bio-polyol-B, Bio-polyol-M
had a higher hydroxyl number and a much lower viscosity. The RPUF-M
also possessed a series of advantages over the rigid polyurethane
foam called RPUF-B from Bio-polyol-B.