Synthesis of phosphorus containing epoxidized soybean oil polyols and examination of their flame retardant properties

The majority of materials which we use in our daily life are mainly polymers and plastics. Because of their versatility and effectiveness, polymers are the most popular research topic of the current research of the World. Raw materials of synthetic polymers are petroleum derivatives and there are many disadvantages for petrochemical feedstocks, such as energy, production, and transportation cost and nonrenewable resource. Consequently, much attention has been focused on the development of polymeric materials from renewable resources such as vegetable oils. Vegetable oil is one of the repretentative feedstock for petroleum based polymer because of their biodegradability, renewability and low price. Furthermore, the long fatty acid chains of vegetable oils impart desirable flexibility and toughness to some brittle resin systems such as epoxy, urethane and polyester resins. Plant resources are an important raw material for the materials obtained from renewable sources. Soybean oil is one of the most abundant and low-cost vegetable oils available in most parts of the World. Epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) can be derived by chemical oxidation of soybean oil and is commercially available. Another problem of polymers' are flammability. Flame-retardant additives are often used and necessary for the finished commercial polymer based materials. Today, halogenated compounds for flame retardancy are mainly used in the industry. Halogenated organic molecules, such as brominated or chlorinated compounds, are particularly effective flame retardants. However, they cause environmental and health hazards that are restricting their continued use in the industry. Due to health and environmental causes new flame retardant compounds are significant. Halogen-free flame retardants for polymeric materials have attracted increasing attention in recent years. It is also seen that the works centered around the Flame retardants which covalently bonded to the polymer matrix. Especially, phosphorus-containing flame retardants give off less toxic combustion products, influence the reaction in the condensed phase, and become an important replacement for halogen flame retardants. This research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel polymer materials through the incorporation epoxidized soybean oil and phosphorus containing tetraol product (DYM) into the polymer structure to be used as non-flammable and biodegrable polyols. The synthesized polyols (ESBO-DYM) used in rijit polyurethane formulation. TGA analyzes and LOI (limit oxygen index) values of polyurethanes were also examined within the scope of non-flammability tests. The mechanical properties and cell structure of the synthesized polyurethanes were also examined with SEM analysis. By the amount of phosphorus increased in the foam, the thermal stability properties of the material are also increased. LOI results were found %18.3, %18.8, %18.8, 21.8%, 22.3%, 22.9% when using %5, %15, %25, 50%, 75%, 100% (as polyol amount) of soybean based polyol (ESBO-DYM) containing phosphorus in the polyurethane foam formulation. Respectively in the TGA analysis ESBO-DYM polyurethane foam samples heated from 40 ° C to 700 ° C, and resulted in 3.47-4.87% char, while the polyurethane foam sample prepared with the standard polyol was completely depleted. This work is centered around the synthetic challenges of creating new well defined systems and their potential for advancing in the field of ultra high flame retardancy with an improvement performance for new applications. Keywords: Flame retardant, flame retardant, polyol, polyurethane, phosphorus.