In this work we showed the polyurethane rigid foams synthesis using a macropolyol synthesized from castor oil and polyglycerol. This process is optimized employing a response surface analysis and using a 3² factorial design. The factors evaluated were: amount of water and tartaric acid, where tartaric acid acts as crosslinking agent and catalyst; mechanical properties of foams were evaluated as bulk density (ASTM D1622-08), compressive strength (ASTM D1621), thermal conductivity (ASTM C177-04), and friability (ASTM C421-8); scanning electronic microscopic (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The macropolyol was obtained from renewable sources by the transesterification of castor oil (CO) or maleinized castor oil (MACO) and polyglycerol (PG). The effect of microwaves on the reactions was evaluated, where there was a decrease in time. The monitoring and characterization of intermediate products were performed by quantifying the acid value by titration (ASTM D4662-03) and hydroxyl number (ASTM D4274-05).
Polyurethane; rigid foam; castor oil; polyglycerol
