Preparation and characterization of new polyurethane based foams with improved insulating properties by use of turkey feather

In this study, rigid polyurethane foams (RPUF) containing turkey feather fibers (TFF) obtained from waste turkey feathers in varying contents (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 wt.%) were prepared and their characteristic properties were investigated. TFFs doped RPUFs were successfully fabricated in a closed mold by the one-shut free-rise method. The produced foams were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), thermal conductivity and acoustic test (insulating performance), air permeability test (application potential) and by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (morphology study). At low percentages of TFFs, the thermal stability of the foams attributed to the powerful interactions between TFFs and RPUF matrix were observed. The effect disappeared at higher contents. The thermal insulating performance of the foams improved by 17%, from 0.0352 to 0.0291 W/m K at 3% TFFs. This improvement was explained by high numbers of uniformly distributed closed cells of the foam and well distributed, the hollow honeycomb structured feathers in the matrix. The acoustic tests revealed an increase tend in acoustic performance of the TFFs doped foams in almost all frequencies with increasing TFFs content. The air permeability tests displayed a 12.6% reduction in the air permeability, compared to pure foam, at 3 and 6% TFFs, which shows the significant contribution of TFFs to the gas barrier performance of the foam. SEM analysis of the products demonstrated that the introduction of the TFFs significantly affected the the cellular structure of the foam. While the uniform cell structure and homogeneous distribution is preserved at low pecentages of TFFs, distorted and inhomogeneous cell structures were observed with the increase in the content of TFF.