Bio-based macroporous polymer nanocomposites made by mechanical frothing of acrylated epoxidised soybean oil

Abstract

Mechanical frothing is one of the most commonly used methods to create gas-liquid foams. Until recently, the polymerisation of mechanically frothed gas-liquid foams was limited to the synthesis of quasi two-dimensional polymer structures, such as films. In this study we show that three-dimensional bio-based polymer foams can be created by microwave curing of gas-soybean oil foams created by mechanical frothing using lauryl peroxide as the radical initiator. It was found that the introduction of air during the mechanical frothing was necessary to create the three-dimensional polymer foams. Using bacterial cellulose nanofibrils (BC) simultaneously as a foam stabiliser has potential because it obstructs the flow of liquid from the lamella region in these gas-soybean oil foams while simultaneously acting as nano-filler in the polymer foam. It was found that the stability of the gas-soybean oil foam templates and the mechanical properties of the polymer nanocomposite foams are enhanced upon the addition of BC in to the foams.