Bio-based polyurethane/hindered phenol AO-80 composites for room temperature high damping properties

Elastomeric damping materials are essential in modern life. Apart from natural rubber, conventional elastomers are mostly based on petroleum-based sources. Moreover, elastomers exhibit excellent damping properties in the glass transition region, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of elastomers is lower than room temperature, resulting in poor damping properties at room temperature. However, because of limited and unsustainable petrochemical resources and environmental pollution, sustainable development and green environmental protection have become important principles in the design of damping materials, and most damping materials are used at room temperature. Therefore, designing bio-based materials with high damping properties at room temperature to replace conventional cross-linked rubber materials is crucial. Herein, we prepared bio-based millable polyurethane (bio-MPU)/hindered phenol 3,9-bis-{1,1-dimethyl-2[β-(3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl-)propionyloxy]ethyl}-2,4,8,10-tetraoxaspiro (Wang et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2016) [5,5]-undecane (AO-80) composites to overcome the challenge of sustainable development and high damping properties at room temperature. Bio-MPU samples with high Tg were synthesized from bio-based modified polylactic acid-based polyols, 4, 4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate, and unsaturated chain extender 3-allyloxy-1, 2-propanediol. AO-80 was mixed with bio-MPU to further increase the Tg and enhance the damping properties of the bio-MPU/AO-80 composites. The properties of the bio-MPUs and bio-MPU/AO-80 composites were systematically evaluated. This study proposes a strategy to design high damping properties from bio-based raw materials and reduce our dependence on fossil resources.