Fabrication of hydrolyzed keratin-modified rigid polyurethane foams and its thermal stability and combustion performance

AbstractRigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) were synthesized with hydrolyzed keratin using the “one-step method” of all-water foaming. Thermogravimetric analysis, pyrolysis kinetics analysis, cone calorimetry and smoke density (Ds) were used to investigate the effects of hydrolyzed keratin on thermal stability and combustion performance of RPUFs. The results showed that the modified RPUFs with 12.5 wt% hydrolyzed keratin (RPUF-HK5) had the lowest mass loss, the highest integrated program pyrolysis temperature, the highest activation energy, the lowest Ds (25.32 and 22.57), the highest light transmittance (64.30% and 67.46%), and total heat release (1.85 MJ/m2, 2.18 MJ/m2 and 2.92 MJ/m2), which indicated that RPUF-HK5 had better thermal stability and combustion performance. The current research results provided a useful reference for the preparation of the RPUFs with good thermal stability by bio-based modification.Keywords: Polyurethane foamhydrolyzed keratincombustion performancethermal stability Disclosure statementWe declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled.Data availability statementData available on request from the authors. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Additional informationFundingThe financial support from Scientific Research Fund of Liaoning Provincial Education Department [Grant No. JYT2020011) is greatly acknowledged.