High-Strength Organic-Inorganic Composites with Superior Thermal Insulation and Acoustic Attenuation

Divya Iyer; Mohammad Galadari; Fernaldy Wirawan; Vanessa Huaco; Ricardo Martinez; Michael T Gallagher; Laurent Pilon; Kanji Ono; Dante A Simonetti; Gaurav N Sant; Samanvaya Srivastava

doi:10.1021/acspolymersau.3c00037

High-Strength Organic-Inorganic Composites with Superior Thermal Insulation and Acoustic Attenuation

ACS Polym Au. 2024 Jan 16;4(1):86-97. doi: 10.1021/acspolymersau.3c00037. eCollection 2024 Feb 14.

Authors

Divya Iyer¹, Mohammad Galadari¹, Fernaldy Wirawan¹, Vanessa Huaco¹, Ricardo Martinez², Michael T Gallagher³, Laurent Pilon^{2

4}, Kanji Ono⁵, Dante A Simonetti^{1

6}, Gaurav N Sant^{6

7

8}, Samanvaya Srivastava^{1

6

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
² Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
³ Mattress Recycling Council, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, United States.
⁴ Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
⁶ Institute for Carbon Management, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
⁷ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
⁸ California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.

Abstract

We demonstrate facile fabrication of highly filled, lightweight organic-inorganic composites comprising polyurethanes covalently linked with naturally occurring clinoptilolite microparticles. These polyurethane/clinoptilolite (PUC) composites are shown to mitigate particle aggregation usually observed in composites with high particle loadings and possess enhanced thermal insulation and acoustic attenuation compared with conventionally employed materials (e.g., drywall and gypsum). In addition to these functional properties, the PUC composites also possess flexural strengths and strain capacities comparable to and higher than ordinary Portland cement (OPC), respectively, while being ∼1.5× lighter than OPC. The porosity, density, and mechanical and functional properties of these composites are tuned by systematically varying their composition (diisocyanate, polyurethane, and inorganic contents) and the nature of the organic (reactivity and source of polyol) components. The fabrication process involves mild curing conditions and uses commonly available reagents (naturally occurring aluminosilicate particles, polyols, and diisocyanate), thereby making the process scalable. Finally, the composite properties are shown to be independent of the polyol source (virgin or recycled), underlining the generality of this approach for the scalable utilization of recycled polyols.