Flexible polyurethane foams synthesized with palm oil-based bio-polyols obtained with the use of different oxirane ring opener

The synthesis of flexible polyurethane foams with different content of various palm oil-based polyols (10-25 wt. %.) and the reference sample based on a petrochemical polyol were performed. The bio-polyols were synthesized with the use of different oxirane ring opener (water and diethylene glycol). Two different bio-polyols with hydroxyl values 102 and 128 mgKOH/g were used. It was observed that the more the bio-polyols used, the hardness and hysteresis of the modified foams have higher value. The addition of both bio-polyols results in an increasing the support factor and a reduction of the resilience value up to 25%. The use of the bio-polyols results in unification of the cellular structure and increasing of closed cell content. The foams after fatigue tests have very good properties and could be applied by the furniture industry, taking into account especially their support factor in the range of 1.7-3.2 and compression set below 1.7%.