Vegetable oil-based rigid polyurethanes and phosphorylated flame-retardants derived from epoxydized soybean oil

In this work, it has been investigated the utilization of phosphorylated polyols, derived from vegetable oils, in the formulation of rigid polyurethane foams and their property as flame-retardants. Phosphorylated polyols were used in different proportions with other polyols, such as castor oil, glycerin and glycol polyesters. In order to obtain the phosphorylated polyols, soybean oil was reacted with phosphoric acid. The obtained polyols were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), hydroxyl index (OH), acid value (AV), and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The foams were prepared using a NCO/OH molar ratio 1.2:1 and poured into a box using pentane as blowing agent and polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI). They were characterized by means of apparent density, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), flammability test and simultaneous thermal analysis coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (SDT-FTIR). The results demonstrated that phosphorylated polyols obtained from renewable sources present flame-retardancy potential as good as the commercial ones.