Thermo gravimetric analysis and morphological behavior of castor oil based polyurethane–polyester nonwoven fabric composites

Castor oil (CO) based polyurethane (PU)– polyester nonwoven fabric composites were fabricated by impregnating the polyester nonwoven fabric in a reactive composition containing CO and diisocyanate. Composites were fabricated with two different isocyanates such as toluene‐2, 4‐diisocyanate (TDI) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) studies of the composites were performed to establish the thermal stability and their mode of thermal degradation. It was found that degradation of neat PU takes place in two steps and that of polyester nonwoven fabric reinforced PU composites takes place in three steps. From the TGA thermograms, a little improvement in thermal stability incase of polyester nonwoven fabric reinforced PU composites were noticed compared to unreinforced PUs. Degradation kinetic parameters were obtained for the composites using Broido, Coats and Redfern, and Horowitz and Metzger methods. Tensile fractured composite specimens were used to analyze the morphology of the composites by scanning electron microscopic technique. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007