20^th World Congress on Materials Science and Engineering June 24-26, 2019 Vienna, Austria

Ainoa Candela works in Materials, Adhesion and Polymers Area in CETEM, (Technological Center of Furniture and Wood). She studied Chemistry bachelor degree at University of Murcia where she developed a project at Agricultural Chemistry Department. Before that, she did a Master’s degree in Research and development of drugs at University of Granada, where at the same time, she joined at Inorganic Chemistry Department of Science Faculty. After 2 years in researching groups, she joined in 2018 the R&D department of technological Center of Furniture and Wood of the Region of Murcia, a technology center dedicated to carrying out innovative activities with the aim of encouraging the development and continuous improvement of wood and furniture companies

Statement of the Problem: Conventional flexible polyurethane foams are materials widely used in different industrial sectors, such as furniture, mattresses and bedding products and automotive sector due to their properties and low cost. Polyol and isocyanate are the main components of the formulation of flexibles polyurethane foams but often fillers are added to improve the properties of the foamed material. Calcium carbonate is an inorganic filler commonly used at industrial scale to manufacture flexible polyurethane foams however recently, some works about the use of organic renewable fibres are being carried out. This work has been carried out to analyse the effect of adding cellulose fibres in the formulation of flexible polyurethane foams on their foaming process and properties. rnMethodology & Theoretical Orientation: A conventional formulation for flexible polyurethane foam was used and different percentages of Micro-cellulose fibres (MCF) were added as filler. The MCF was completely characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA). The foamed materials were completely characterized and their properties were compared with a non-filled conventional flexible polyurethane foam. rnFindings: The use of MFC fillers does not modify chemical structure of foam according to the results obtained by FTIR and TGA analyses. Some foams properties, such as density and compression strength, were increased as increased the MFC percentage. Nevertheless, the compression set was slightly adversely affected. The TGA analysis shows that there are not any percentage of the cellulose fibres which disturbs the chemical structure of the polymer and also that a complete thermal degradation of the material occurred. rnConclusion & Significance: The use of sustainable origin filler permit to control some properties of the foamed materials without modification of chemical structure. Moreover, it is possible to replace the inorganic fillers and to develop greener non-residue foams. rn