Recycling of polyurethane wastes using different carboxylic acids via acidolysis to produce wood adhesives

Abstract This study aims to provide further understanding on the depolymerization of polyurethanes (PU) via acidolysis. Therefore, polyurethane foams scraps are chemical recycled using different dicarboxylic acids, namely succinic and phthalic dicarboxylic acids, being the reaction products identified using Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and gel permeation chromatography. The results obtained show that succinic acid has higher efficiency as cleavage agent, as a result, the succinic acid ensuing recovered polyol (RP) presents higher hydroxyl value and lower viscosity. Additionally, from the oxidative‐induction time measurements, it is observed that the RP is considerably more thermally stable, than the petroleum‐based polyol, due to the higher content of aromatic moieties. Afterwards, the RP is used as substitute of petroleum‐based polyol in the production of polyurethane adhesives (PUA) and compared with conventional polyol based PUA. Due to the higher content of aromatic moieties, higher bonding strength is achieved using the RP. Overall, further understanding on the acidolysis is obtained, proving the suitability of this method for the recycling of PU.