Synthesis and Characterization of Polyurethanes Made from Copolymers of Epoxidized Natural Oil and Tetrahydrofuran

Abstract

Polyols were synthesized from epoxidized natural oils and tetrahydrofuran through ring opening copolymerization catalyzed by Lewis acid. The properties of these polyols depend on the type of natural oils as well as the reaction conditions (monomer concentration, catalyst amount, reaction temperature and reaction time). These polyols were evaluated as a raw material for making polyurethane (PU) in order to understand the structure-property relationship between a natural oil and PU made from it. The tensile test analysis shows that the incorporation of natural oil moiety into the PU polymer network improves the elasticity of these PU samples when compared to a benchmark PU sample. In addition, the PU samples made from palm oil and soybean oil based polyols exhibit better tensile strength than benchmark PU. These polyols samples are suitable for making elastomeric PU, where high flexibility (high elongation at break) of PU is a common requirement.