Rigid polyurethane foams based on activated soybean meal

Abstract Soybean meal (SM), an abundant biomass resource, was used as the surrogate to partially replace polyols in rigid polyurethane foam synthesis. Compared with polyurethanes based on other soybean‐based resources, such as soybean protein isolate (SPI), polyurethane foams based on activated SM showed better thermal and mechanical properties. The amount of SM in the final polyurethane foams can be as high as 30 wt % (base on the total weight of foam), which dramatically decreases the cost of the foams. The results also showed that SM played a vital role in improving the foam properties, which could be attributed to the participation of the functional groups in SM in the polyurethane foam synthesis. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012