Chemical modifications of natural oils and examples of their usage for polyurethane synthesis

Natural oils have been used in the production of plastics for a long time. However, the number of studies dedicated to polyurethane research has shown an increase only recently. Usually, petrochemical components are used in polyurethane synthesis. Nowadays, there have been attempts made to replace polyols in polyurethanes with the modified oils and other natural raw materials. It is a promising and important scenario because the flexible segment of such polyurethanes can contain even up to 60 wt % of the novel ingredient. In the case of material evaluation for industry, one can additionally count on lowering the product price because natural oil is generally 2 to 3 times cheaper as compared to its synthetic equivalent. Oils most commonly used in industrial applications are soybean oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, castor oil and tung oil. In this work the study results and the possibilities of applying natural oils in polyurethane synthesis are presented.