Synthesis of Tapioca Starch-based Polyurethane Foam

• Main Author: Abimantrana Prabaswara, Enggar
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/43762
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Polyurethane is one of the polymer with many applications and variants. But its composition contains non-renewable petroleum-based polyol, so that renewable sources are needed to solve this problem, and one of the solution is starch. The goal of this research is to study the effects of substituting polyol with gelatinized starch to produce polyurethane foam. Production of polyurethane foam were done by mixing gelatinized starch and isocyanate with starch concentration by 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10% (w/w). Testing and characterization performed were measurements of blowability and density, observation of the foam’s morphology, biodegradation testing, and characterization using FTIR. The results show that gelatinized starch can be used as a substitution of polyol with the highest blowability of 572.98%, lowest density by 0.124 gr/cm3 and highest rate of biodegradation by 19.21% within 7 days (area reduction). Furthermore, it can be concluded that gelatinized starch has a potential to substitute polyol to produce polyurethane foam.