Fabrication of hydrolyzed keratin-modified rigid polyurethane foams and its thermal stability and combustion performance

Rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) were synthesized with hydrolyzed keratin using the "one-step method" of all-water foaming. Thermogravimetric analysis, pyrolysis kinetics analysis, cone calorimetry and smoke density (Ds) were used to investigate the effects of hydrolyzed keratin on thermal stability and combustion performance of RPUFs. The results showed that the modified RPUFs with 12.5 wt% hydrolyzed keratin (RPUF-HK5) had the lowest mass loss, the highest integrated program pyrolysis temperature, the highest activation energy, the lowest Ds (25.32 and 22.57), the highest light transmittance (64.30% and 67.46%), and total heat release (1.85 MJ/m2, 2.18 MJ/m2 and 2.92 MJ/m2), which indicated that RPUF-HK5 had better thermal stability and combustion performance. The current research results provided a useful reference for the preparation of the RPUFs with good thermal stability by bio-based modification.