JOURNAL OF POLYMER ENGINEERING

 Vol. 22,  No. 2 , 2002, page 137

IMPROVEMENT OF THE INSULATING POWER OF RIGID POLYURETHANE FOAMS BY SOOT FILLER

K. Debski* and J. Magiera**

*Institute of Heavy Organic Synthesis, Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland

**Institute of Chemical Engineering and Physical Chemistry

Cracow University of Technology, Poland

ABSTRACT

Rigid polyurethane foams (RPURF) found broad application as insulating materials, but there is still a need to search for novel, more efficient systems. In this work two series of polyurethane foams were obtained: (i) a pristine one, and (ii) one containing soot as a filler. The densities of both foams ranged from ca. 22 to 80 kg/m³. It has been found on the basis of FT-IR measurements that the extinction coefficient amounts to 600 ~ 7800 m^-1 while there is an increase of the absorption coefficient from ca. 700 to 800 m^-1. Thermal conductivity measurements showed that higher values of  for the conventional foams in comparison with the foams containing filler (densities below 40 kg/m³ ) may suggest that the presence of soot reduces the velocity of exchange of the gases from the cells with environment.

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