Water blown soy polyol-based polyurethane foams of different rigidities

In this report, attempts have been made to study the influence of various factors like level of catalyst system and blowing agent, and functionality and viscosity of polyols, on the structures of various soy polyol-based polyurethane foams. Efforts are made to correlate the relative rigidity of various foams with the foaming reactions probed by infrared (IR) spectroscopy. IR observations have been complemented by thermal analysis and electron microscopic studies. Measurements on density and compressive strength have been conducted to verify the rigidity of different foam systems indicated by IR and thermal analysis.