Polyurethane foams are an important class of polymers, which are synthesized by a polyaddition reaction between polyols and polyisocyanates to form a urethanic linkage. Depending on the chemical structure of used building blocks, their mechanical properties reach from rather rigid to soft and flexible materials. Due to these unique and modular properties, PU foams have a wide range of applications, progressing from furniture-coatings to filter material, automotive seating and thermal insulation. Currently, both the isocyanate-component and the polyols are mostly derived from fossil resources. Owing to sustainability issues in the preparation, there is a growing interest to replace such petroleum based polyols by polyols from renewable feedstocks.<br/>Lignin, a bio-based polymer can be used as a substitute for petrochemical products like polyols. Next to cellulose, lignin is the second most abundant organic material in nature and it is a byproduct in wood-pulp production. At present, only a small amount of lignin is used for materials applications (&lt; 3 %), and most of the Lignin is being used for energy production. Lignin contains a large number of hydroxyl groups and it can be used as a macromonomer (polyol) in polyurethane (foam-)formulations. Although an increasing number of research work has been carried-out on lignin-based PU and some successful demonstrators exist, still there are a number of fundamental unsolved questions to be answered in order to advance such systems into real applications. Here we focus on a fundamental questions regarding the mechanism of the lignin-PU bond formation, bleeding of non-bound lignin from PU foams, and understanding structure-property relations in lignin-substituted foams.

Functionalized lignin as building block for biobased polyurethane foams

255th National Meeting (2018)

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