Physico-chemical analysis of flexible polyurethane foams containing commercial calcium carbonate

Abstract

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is a filler often utilized by the Brazilian mattress factories in the production of polyurethane foams. The filler allows the substitution of part of the polymeric agents, conferring dimensional stability and hardness to the foams. However, in agreement with experimental data, it is observed that the excess of commercial CaCO3 utilized in industry causes the increase of hysteresis, possibly causing permanent deformations and damaging the quality of the final product. In the present work, the physico-chemical analyses of the flexible polyurethane foams with different contents of CaCO3 were performed. The foams are submitted to the morphological, mechanical and positron analyses to verify the alterations provoked by the progressive introduction of this filler.