Characterisation of polyurethane networks based on vegetable derived polyol

A polyurethane (PU) network based on vegetable derived polyol has been characterised and compared to a synthetic based network. Fracture mechanics studies showed the lowest tear strength for the vegetable networks, which decreased as molecular weight of the vegetable based polyol increased. Swelling studies were carried out to determine the molecular weight between crosslinks and polymer networks made from wholly synthetic polyols were shown to have higher molecular weight between crosslinks. Moreover, vegetable networks showed higher solubles' content. Sol-fractions were analysed by several techniques. It was found that vegetable networks based sol-fraction was mainly its correspondent raw polyol while low molecular weight oligomers were detected for the most part in synthetic networks based sol-fraction. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.