THE ROLE OF AMINE CATALYST ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND MORPHOLOGY OF POLYURETHANE FOAM MORTAR MIXES

Rigid Polyurethane foam are found virtually everywhere in our modern world and are used in sound and thermal insulation applications such as refrigerators, insulated buildings, thermosets. Amine catalysts are used to control and/or balance both the gelling reaction and the gas-forming or foaming reaction responsible for foam formation. Although several organometallic compounds or salts may be used as catalysts in the production of polyurethanes, many polyurethane manufacturers use either tertiary aliphatic amines or alkanolamines. Amine catalysts are typically 0.1 to 5.0 percent of a polyurethane formulation. In this work the effect of amine catalyst on the mechanical properties and morphology of polyurethane foam were investigated. Also the thermal conductivity and sound absorption coefficient for polyurethane foam mortar formulations were determined. The morphology of polyurethane foam contains different percentages of amine was investigated using scanning electron microscope. It was clear from the results that polyurethane foam has good thermal and sound insulation capabilities.