Preparation and physico-mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties of flexible polyurethane foams based on hydroxytelechelic natural rubber

Novel flexible polyurethane foams were successfully prepared from a renewable source, hydroxytelechelic natural rubber (HTNR) having different molecular weights (1000–3400 g mol−1) and variation of epoxide contents (EHTNR, 0–35% epoxidation) by a one-shot technique. The chemical and cell structures as well as physico-mechanical, thermal, and acoustic properties were characterized and compared with commercial polyol analogs. The obtained HTNR based foams are open cell structures with cell dimensions between 0.38 and 0.47 mm. The HTNR1000 based foam exhibits better mechanical properties but lower elongation at break than those of commercial polyol analog. However, the HTNR3400 based foam shows the best elastic properties. In a series of EHTNR based foams, the tensile and compressive strengths show a tendency to increase with increasing epoxide content and amount of 1,4-butanediol (BD). The HTNR based foams demonstrate better low temperature flexibility than that of the foam based on commercial polyol. Moreover, the HTNR based polyurethane foams was found to be an excellent absorber of acoustics. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010