Performance characterization and pyrolysis kinetics of graphene-reinforced, green rigid polyurethane foam

Abstract

Rigid polyurethane (PU) foam waste was chemically degraded by the two-component alcoholysis agent of diethylene glycol and ethanolamine and graphine oxide (GO), and PU/GO nanocomposites were obtained by one-step foaming. Rigid PU foam was chemically degraded by adding different proportions of two-component alcoholysis agent and GO. Research on the introduction of GO to degrade PU matrices, using different proportions of the alcoholysis agent degradation law of PU oligomer polyols for regeneration, was conducted through the viscosity and hydroxyl value of recycled polyol determination, the infrared spectrum of foam samples, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, density, water absorption, thermogravimetric and polarizing microscope analysis. The results showed that the compressive strength of PU/GO nanocomposites increased to 0.2754 MPa by 9.6% when the amount of graphene was 0.5% and the thermal conductivity 0.0120 W m−1·K−1, which is 4.8% reduction. The Kissinger equation was used to calculate the activation energy of the regenerated PU pyrolysis reaction. The results showed that the activation energy of the regenerated PU pyrolysis reaction was improved by adding the graphene.