Preparation and Characterisation of Rigid Polyurethane Foam from Terminalia catappa (Tropical Almond) seed oil-based polyol

Polyurethane Foams (PUF) have unique advantages which make them useful for many commercial applications. Due to environmental effect of the traditional petroleum-based methods of their synthesis, renewable bio-based materials are being studied as alternatives to petroleum based polyols. In this study, polyols were synthesized from Terminalia catappa oils via epoxidation with acetic acid using (2:1) weight ratio and subsequently reacted with methanol, water and sulphuric acid in the ratio of 79.5:20:0.5. The resulting polyols were investxigated using FT-IR analysis. Toluene diisocyanate was reacted with the polyol in the ratio of 0.92:1 to form flexible polyurethane foam. This was compared with polyurethane foam synthesized from a petroleum oil-based polyol. The T. catappa polyol obtained was a non-drying oil with a better hydroxyl value than the petroleum polyol. The FT-IR spectra of the tropical almond polyol showed the characteristic broad peak of the OH group at 3436 cm -1 indicating the successful epoxidation of the oil. The comparative analysis between the tropical almond based polyutherane foam and the petroleum oil based polyol showed that the former had better mechanical properties (density, sag factor, density, tensile strength, resillence, hysteresis e.t.c.), athough it had a longer cream time and rise time during production. The polyurethane foam produced from tropical almond based polyol has better properties, more advantageous to the environment and are more user friendly than the petroleum polyol.