Thermal analysis of soybean oil based polyols

Abstract

Soybean oil based polyols (5-OH polyol, 10-OH polyol and 15-OH polyol) were synthetised from epoxidized soybean oil. The melting peak of polyols and the relationship between melting peak and the number-average functionality of hydroxyl in polyols were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal decomposition of polyols and some of their thermal properties by thermogravimetry (TG) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) were also studied. The thermal stability of polyols in a nitrogen atmosphere was very close hence they had a same baseplate of triglyceride for polyols. The extrapolated onset temperature of polyols in their thermal mass loss, first step had a decreasing order: 5-OH polyol>10-OH polyol>15-OH polyol due to the difficulty in forming multiple elements ring of them had the same order.

The thermal behavior of polyols under non-isothermal conditions using Friedman’s differential isoconversional method with different heating rates indicated that the 5-OH polyol had the lowest activation energy in thermal decomposition amongst these polyols according to the same fractional mass loss because of the weakest intramolecular oligomerization. The 15-OH polyol was prior to reach the mass loss region because the six-member ring is more stable than the three-member ring from 10-OH polyol and more easily formed.