Green Composites From Soy-Based Biopolyurethane With Microcrystalline Cellulose

A simple process is described for preparing transparent composite sheets from soy-oil-based biopolyurethane (BioPU) with microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). The sheets are prepared by the reaction of a mixture of soy-oil-based polyol and petrochemical polyol with polymeric methyldiphenyl diisocyanate (pMDI) in the presence and absence of MCC reinforcement by compression molding. MCC is well dispersed in the PU matrix, and characteristic peaks for MCC and BioPU are shown by the FTIR spectra. Mechanical properties are substantially improved with increasing MCC content. DMA and TGA results show better thermal stability in comparison to the neat BioPU sheets.