An application performance study of monoisopropanolamine carbonate in refrigerator insulation materials

Monoisopropanolamine carbonate is a green, safe, and environmentally friendly non-chlorofluorinated polyurethane chemical foaming agent (CFA-1) that can react directly and rapidly with isocyanate to release carbon dioxide for foaming purposes. In this study, we investigated a mixed system of CFA-1, 1,1,1,3,3-pentafluoropropane (HFC-245fa), and cyclopentane (CP) to evaluate its foaming flow performance in refrigerator insulation material applications. We also examined various performance indicators of the resulting foam materials, such as compressive strength, closed cell ratio, and thermal conductivity. The experimental results demonstrated that by adding CFA-1 as a foaming agent, the density and dimensional stability of the foam were comparable to those achieved with the CP + water or CP + HFC-245fa system. In addition, there was a slight improvement in the closed cell ratio and compressive strength, which led to a reduction in the cell diameter within the CP + CFA-1 foaming system compared with those in both CP + water (28.79% decrease) and CP + HFC-245fa (26.11% decrease) systems. This optimized foam material exhibited an enhanced thermal insulation performance, with a 4.20% lower thermal conductivity compared to the CP + water system and 1.88% compared to the CP + HFC-245fa system. Replacing the HFC-245fa physical blowing agent with CFA-1 to prepare low-energy refrigerator insulation materials using rigid polyurethane foam technology offers significant benefits, including eliminating chlorofluorocarbon usage while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.