title: Biodegradable foam plastics based on castor oil.
abstract: In this work, a simple but effective approach was proposed for preparing biodegradable plastic foams with a high content of castor oil. First of all, castor oil reacted with maleic anhydride to produce maleated castor oil (MACO) without the aid of any catalyst. Then plastic foams were synthesized through free radical initiated copolymerization between MACO and diluent monomer styrene. With changes in MACO/St ratio and species of curing initiator, mechanical properties of MACO foams can be easily adjusted. In this way, biofoams with comparable compressive stress at 25% strain as commercial polyurethane (PU) foams were prepared, while the content of castor oil can be as high as 61 wt %. The soil burial tests further proved that the castor oil based foams kept the biodegradability of renewable resources despite the fact that some petrol-based components were introduced.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, OFCM Institute, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hong Juan
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Min Zhi
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Ming Qiu
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Hui Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Tibor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Czigány
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002368:Castor Oil / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D010969:Plastics / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics; D011137:Polystyrenes; D002368:Castor Oil; C024075:styrofoam