Synthesis of filler-reinforced flexible polyurethane foam for sports application

• Main Author: Lee, Yong Pheng
• Other Authors: Alfred Tok Iing Yoong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73754
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Recent advancement in technology had revolutionized many industries. As society nowadays start to be more cautious about health issues and adopting a healthy lifestyle, the sports industry had experienced huge development. There had been studies related to foam technologies to improve the performance of foams in different sports application, such as their applicability as sports shoe sole, sports jacket and much more. To further explore the wonders and possibilities of foam technologies, specifically filler-reinforced flexible polyurethane (PU) foams, more investigations need to take place to further enhance the properties of PU foams for sports application. In this study, apart from synthesizing flexible PU foams suitable for sports application, specifically having suitable softness and flexibility for the use on shoe sole and jackets, 6 different kinds of fillers had been incorporated into the PU foam to investigate their influence on the overall mechanical properties, density and thermal stabilities of PU foam. The fillers involved includes silica aerogel (powder form), silica aerogel (granular form), graphite, glass fiber, carbon fiber and silica fiber. Through the incorporation of fillers, the overall mechanical properties and thermal stability of the PU foams increases linearly with an increase in filler concentrations. Among all fillers, silica aerogel filler with 2% weight concentration enhances the mechanical properties of the PU foam the most, with an increase in normalized compressive strength by 6.6 times the original value, as well as an increase in recovery rate by 9%. These enhancements would prove beneficial for sports applications such as new shoe sole materials. Other results of filler-reinforced PU foams are also further discussed in this study.