• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.376-380
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• 2007

Used polyurethane (PU) was chemically degraded by the treatment with flame retardants such as tris(1,3-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), triethyl phosphate (TEP), and trimethyl phosphate (TMP). Analysis of FT-IR and P-NMR showed that the degraded products (DEP) contained oligourethanes. Rigid polyurethane foam was produced using the DEP as flame retardants. The flammability and thermal stability of recycled rigid polyurethane were investigated. The mechanical properties such as compressive strength of recycled polyurethane were also studied. The recycled polyurethane reduced flammability and enhanced thermal stability over intrinsic polyurethane. Mechanical strength of recycled polyurethane also shows as high as that of intrinsic polyurethane. In order to evaluate flame retardant properties of the recycled polyurethane foams with various amounts of DEP, heat release rate (HRR) of the foam was measured by cone calorimeter. Scanning electron micrograph of recycled PU showed a uniform cell morphology as a intrinsic PU.