Polyurethane foams are used in many different
applications, such as insulation and coating materials, packaging, furniture
and so on. It has very low weight, low
cost and thermal conductivity hereby frequently preferred by architectural and
construction industry. On the other hand, these large-scale uses bring with
waste problem after applications. In this study, the effect of polyurethane
foam waste (PUw) on the thermal and morphological properties of polypropylene
(PP)/ poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composites plasticized with polyethylene glycol
(PEG 400) was investigated. PUw filled PP/PLA composites were prepared using
melt blending followed by compression molding. Thermal and morphological
properties of PUw filled PP/PLA composites were characterized by thermogravimetric
analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal conductivity
analyzer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results shown that the thermal
conductivity of the composites improved significantly with addition of PUw, while
glass transition temperature (Tg), the melting temperature (Tm)
and melting enthalpy (ΔHm) values of the composites decreased. Based
on finding, the PUw could be used as filler in PP/PLA composites for insulation
and energy efficiency.
The authors are grateful to NuhPol for PEG 400 and polyurethane foam waste samples supply.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Engineering |
Journal Section | Research Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 31, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 |
The works published in Journal of Innovative Science and Engineering (JISE) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.