Improvement of Flexible Polyurethane Foam Characteristics of Palm Oil Polyols with the Addition Of Polyethylene Glycol-400

Abstract Palm oil polyol-based foams have inflexible and brittle properties. polyols a lower molecular weight. Polyols with high weight primary OH group, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG)-400, can provide the flexible properties of polyurethane foam. This study aimed to examine optimum concentration PEG-400, which produce foam made from palm best characteristics based on mechanical compared polyol PEG-400 treatment 80%:20%, 70%:30%, 60%:40%, 50%:50%. Flexible was characterized, including FTIR analysis, SEM, tensile strength, yield elongation at break, TGA. The results showed that use an 40% resulted in greater number open cells increased but decreased value strength well foam’s stability heat. However, break PEG-based obtained this followed requirements.