PFI-TT: A non-toxic, biobased, and recyclable polyurethane for foam-in-place packaging and rigid foam insulation.

这一创新技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将包装、绝缘和建筑市场中的聚氨酯泡沫塑料从有毒的生产流程转变为良性的生产流程。在世界塑料生产排行榜上，聚氨酯排在第六位，但在制造过程中使用了致癌、诱变和生殖毒素。该项目将100%的生物基来源与无毒成分相结合，合成可在使用寿命结束时回收到原始材料的聚氨酯泡沫。减少环境中的塑料垃圾和消除致癌材料的使用是许多行业所希望的理想。然而，一次性塑料在包装应用中的使用以及用于绝缘的泡沫的使用使环境特别关注聚亚安酯行业。该项目解决了从以石油为基础的来源向以生物为基础的原料过渡的需要，并在不同的商业平台上实现了无毒聚氨酯的工业可行工艺。该项目的成功成果将是通过创新采用循环生命周期的聚氨酯的新路线，实现聚氨酯行业的彻底转变。该项目旨在实现一种基于生物的非异氰酸酯聚氨酯的室温发泡和固化方案。聚氨基甲酸酯是由多元醇和异氰酸酯商业生产的；异氰酸酯是一种致癌、致突变和生殖毒素(CMR)，具有重大的健康和安全危险。由于无法使新的非异氰酸酯化学成分适应工业和商业应用中通常使用的工艺条件，目前工业中的非异氰酸酯配方非常有限。为了合成活性生物基前体，将还原催化分馏(RCF)用于木质原料，以提取富含能够与环状碳酸酯功能化的双功能芳香族化合物的油。将利用先前的协议来合成具有特定化学键的非异氰酸酯聚氨酯泡沫塑料，该化学键能够在合成后解聚。通过添加丙烯酸酯单体和含有乙烯基团的活性稀释剂，催化剂优化和紫外光辅助固化过程将有助于室温发泡。这种方法还有助于改变反应混合物的粘度，以生产用于包装应用的低密度泡沫。该项目的成功结果可能表明，在室温下生产无毒聚氨酯的工艺在商业上是可行的，该工艺专为寿命结束时的降解而设计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is the conversion from a toxic to benign manufacturing sequence for polyurethane foams in the packaging, insulation, and construction markets. Polyurethanes rank the 6th most produced plastic in the world yet use cancer-causing, mutagenic and reproductive toxins in their manufacture. This project combines a 100% biobased source with non-toxic ingredients to synthesize polyurethane foams that can be recycled back to their starting materials at their end-of-life. The ideal of reducing plastic waste in the environment and eliminating the use of carcinogenic material is desired across many industries. However, the use of one-time-use plastics in packaging applications as well as foams used for insulation has placed particular environmental focus on the polyurethane industry. This project addresses the need to transition from petroleum-based sources to biobased feedstocks and enable industrially viable processes for non-toxic polyurethanes in diverse commercial platforms. The successful outcome of this project would be a complete shift for the polyurethane industry by innovating new routes to polyurethanes that embrace a circular lifecycle. This project seeks to enable a room temperature foaming and curing protocol for a biobased, non-isocyanate polyurethane. Polyurethanes are manufactured commercially from polyols and isocyanates; The isocyanate carries significant health and safety dangers as it is a cancer-causing, mutagenic and a reproductive toxin (CMR). Non-isocyanate formulations in industry are currently very limited due to the inability to adapt new non-isocyanate chemistries to processing conditions typically used in industrial and commercial applications. To create reactive biobased precursors for synthesis, reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) will be employed to woody feedstocks to extract an oil rich in bi-functional aromatic compounds capable of functionalizing with cyclic carbonates. A previous protocol will be leveraged to synthesize non-isocyanate polyurethane foams with specific chemical linkages capable of depolymerization post-synthesis. Room temperature foaming will be aided by catalyst optimization and a ultraviolet light-assisted curing process through the addition of acrylated monomers and reactive diluents containing vinyl groups. This approach will also facilitate the ability to vary the viscosity of the reaction mixture to produce low density foams for packaging applications. The successful outcome of the project may demonstrate a commercially viable process for producing non-toxic polyurethanes at room temperature that are specifically designed for degradation at their end-of-life.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.