Chemical Degradation Of Polyurethane For Recycling Polyether Polyol

The morphology and properties of polyurethane material was changed greatly due to the difference of their types and composition, and than several different sorts of from soft to hard polyurethane material can be obtained. Polyurethane products, including soft, semi-rigid and rigid plastics, elastomers, fibers, synthetic leather, paints, resins, adhesives, sealants were mainly used in aviation, petrochemical, medical, construction, transportation, automotive, mining machinery, electronics, home appliances, textile, footwear, synthetic leather, agriculture and many other fields. When polyurethane products were used, large amounts of waste generated. Most of the waste was landfilled or incinerated, which not only caused great losses of reusable resources but also polluted the atmosphere. So, the recycling and disposal of polyurethane waste has become a very important issue.This paper reviewed various recovery methods of polyurethane material, focusing on the glycolysis and aminolysis, and proposed the degradation methods of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers and flexible polyurethane foam.To degrade the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU), the following work had been done. First, ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DEG) and a mixture of EG-DEG were used as reagent to degrade TPU. And than EG and ethanolamine (EA) was selected as reagent, changing the ratio of EG and EA to find optimum degradation ratio. After combination of the above work, the best ratio of ternary mixture reagent (EG-DEG-EA) was found. Second, keeping the ratio of mixture reagent unchanged, try different catalysts to degrade TPU, and than choose more appropriate catalysts. Third, by gradually reducing the reagent, the ratio of the reagent and TPU was obtained. Finally, the best way was found out to degrade TPU. The recycled products were identified by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), infrared (IR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). The result was showed that the product was polyether polyol.Aniline, EA and EG were used as reagent to degrade the flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF). The degraded products were characterized by GPC and IR. The most appropriate reagent was gotten based on the characterization results.