Metal Ions Fortified Tannin-Furanic Rigid Foam: The Impact on the Uniformity and Mechanical Performance

TL;DR

Adding metal ions to tannin-furanic foam improves its mechanical strength and uniformity while keeping it lightweight and thermally insulating.

Contribution

The study introduces metal ions to enhance the mechanical and structural properties of tannin-furanic foam.

Findings

Modified foams showed 56–163% higher compression strength compared to unmodified foams.

The foam cell structures became more uniform after metal ion modification.

Modified foams exhibited excellent thermal insulation with conductivity between 0.0443 to 0.0552 W/m·K.

Abstract

Tannin-furanic foams with excellent properties have attracted increasing interest due to their advantages such as easy preparation, light weight, and thermal insulation. However, unsatisfactory mechanical strength has limited the expansion of their applications. Herein, three different metal ions (Cu2+, Fe3+, and Zn2+) were chosen to enhance the properties of tannin-furanic foam prepared by mechanical stirring provoked a foaming approach. The positive effects originating from the complexation are attributed to the associated connection between tannin molecules and metal ions. The results indicated that the apparent performance was improved, resulting in even foam cell structures. The apparent densities for the tannin-furanic foam modified with metal ions were located in the range of 36.57–47.84 kg/m3, showing the feature of lightweight material. The enhanced mechanical strength was verified by the compression strength (0.097–0.163 MPa) and pulverization ratio (7.57–11.01%) of the modified foams, which increased by 56–163% and decreased by 61–73%, respectively, in comparison with tannin-furanic foam without the metal ions. Additionally, the thermal conductivity of the modified tannin-furanic foams was in the range of 0.0443 to 0.0552 W/m·K. This indicates that they inherited the excellent thermal insulation typically associated with tannin-based foams. Interestingly, higher mechanical performance was obtained by comparison with other bio-sourced foams even with similar densities. In summary, by introducing only a small amount of metal ions, the foam performance was greatly improved, with a moderate cost increase, which reflects a good development prospect.

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