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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #322347
Research Project: Increasing the Value of Cottonseed

Location: Commodity Utilization Research

Title: Novel polyurethanes from xylan and TDI: Preparation and characterization

Author
item Cheng, Huai
item FURTADO, R - Embrapa
item ALVES, C - Universidade Estadual Do Ceara
item BASTOS, M - Embrapa
item Kim, Sanghoon
item Biswas, Atanu

Submitted to: International Journal of Polymer Analysis and Characterization
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/10/2016
Publication Date: 4/2/2017
Citation: Cheng, H.N., Furtado, R.F., Alves, C.R., Bastos, M.S.R., Kim, S., Biswas, A. 2017. Novel polyurethanes from xylan and TDI: Preparation and characterization. International Journal of Polymer Analysis and Characterization. 22(1):35-42.

Interpretive Summary: Because of environmental and sustainability concerns, there is a lot of R&D activities to make chemical products from agricultural commodities. Xylan is an agricultural commodity that occurs in plant cell walls and is part of hemicellulose, which is among the most abundant carbohydrates available on earth. There is an increasing interest in using xylan as a renewable raw material for polymeric products, but chemical derivatizations are often needed to improve its properties. In this work we have reacted xylan with tolylene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) to produce a xylan-based polyurethane. When the appropriate TDI/xylan ratio is used, a soluble product can be obtained. The xylan polyurethane has improved thermal properties. Polyurethanes are currently being used for a wide range of industrial applications. The findings of this work will permit the use of xylan in polyurethanes and thereby increase its commercial value.

Technical Abstract: In this work a novel polyurethane was developed involving xylan and tolylene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI). Polymer synthesis was achieved via conventional heat or microwave-assisted reaction in dimethylsulfoxide. Because xylan has multiple OH groups on each polymer chain, the TDI/xylan molar ratio needed to be adjusted in order to produce a soluble polymeric product. The reaction products were characterized with NMR, FT-IR, and thermogravimetric analysis. The xylan polyurethane was shown to exhibit improved thermal stability over xylan.