Thermal stability of polyurethane materials based on castor oil as polyol component

Preparation of the series of polyurethane elastomers and its nanocomposites from castor oil (a vegetable triglyceride) and different isocyanates (aromatic: toluene diisocyanate, TDI and aliphatic: isophorone diisocyanate, IPDI) is described. The synthesis was carried out in bulk and without catalyst by a one-step reactive process. Different elastomers were prepared by using several stoichiometric imbalances. For polyurethane nanocomposites based on TDI, titanium(IV) oxide nanoparticles was used. The thermal properties of the materials are discussed on the basis of simultaneous TG-DSC measurements results and TMDSC data. TMDSC results show that T _g increases with increasing r = NCO/OH ratio. Namely, with increasing NCO/OH ratio the cross-linkage density increases and as a consequence, the chain mobility decreases, resulting in a higher T _g. It was estimated that the T _g of the samples decreased as the nanofiller content increased due to the changes in the segmental mobility in polyurethane materials. Thermal data refers to increased stability of nanocomposites compared with that of the unfilled elastomers.