Preparation and characterization of polyurethane filled bentonite composites foams

Shahrum Amlee, Syuhadatul Nadia (2017) Preparation and characterization of polyurethane filled bentonite composites foams. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

The bentonite mineral clay has its special characteristic as it is derived from the natural source. Previous researchers had incorporated the bentonite clay with polyurethane foams in order to produce the composites foams. Although there are previous research that utilized various types of clay in their study, there are still limited researches that combine bentonite with polyurethane foams in fabricating the functional high performance composites. The purpose of this study is to prepare and characterize the performance of bentonite at various loading by incorporating it with PU foams. The PU/Bentonite composites foams were produced by mechanical mixing, followed by foam growth and curing of the foams. The selection of optimum bentonite filler formulation were based on the polyol and isocyanate ratio that are fixed into 1:14 ratio. This study had utilized different weight percentages of filler loadings which are 0 wt. %, 0.50 wt. %, 0.75 wt. %, 1.00 wt. %, 3.00 wt. % and 5.00 wt % as to evaluate and observe the resulted physical, mechanical and thermal properties of PU/Bentonite composites foams. Next, the fracture surface morphology of the selected sample were analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations. At the end of this study, mechanical and thermal performance of the produced composites were succeeded in certain remarkable improvement. At 1.00 wt. % of bentonite addition, it successfully improved the fracture toughness strength at about 120 % enhancement while at 0.50 wt. % of bentonite addition, about 77% of compressive strength were improved. Besides, the thermal stability of PU/Bentonite composites foams were achieved at 5 wt. % of bentonite addition as proven by the TGA analysis. This research is significantly important to be carried out as it could provide another alternative for advanced materials that utilizing the advantage of naturally derived material for many possible high performance applications.

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