Combustibility and Thermal Degradation Property of Polyurethane Foam as Building Material

Abstract

Combustibility and thermal degradation properties were examined for the polyurethane foam and the wood (Japanese cedar) material used as building materials. The flaming combustion time of the wood is extremely long while the polyurethane foam burns rapidly. Moreover, from the results of the measurements of the combustion speed during the combustion tests, it could be inferred that when polyurethane foam and wood of ideally the same mass were burnt, the calorific value of the polyurethane foam was larger. In terms of the thermal degradation properties, in the heat weight measurements the weight decrease curves differed greatly depending on the kinds of isocyanate and polyol, which are the raw materials of polyurethane, Wood showed behavior located in between. Regarding the thermal degradation products, in the case of polyurethane foam the resolution products originating from polyol and polyether, which are the raw materials, were identified, and many products from which the isocyanate ends were substituted for amines were also observed. On the other hand, cellulose, which is the prin-cipal ingredient of wood, and resolution products of lignin origin were observed in the wood, and acetaldehyde hydroxy was generated in great amounts in particular.