Waste plastic materials are the major concerns of environmentalists.
Thus, renewable resources are now greatly
favored for the production of polymers. The wide range
of mechanical properties and the ability for easy machining
and forming cause the plastic foams and elastomers to
find wide industrial and consumer applications. In particular,
urethane foams and elastomers have been found to
be well suited for many applications. The vegetable oils
provide a large variety of options for the preparation of
polyurethanes. All the vegetable oils are triglycerides of
fatty acids andmost contain unsaturated groups. Only a few
oils contain other groups such as hydroxyl in castor oil, safflower
oil and lesquerella oil, and oxirane group in vernonia
oil. Soybean and linseed oils are also used in the preparation
of polyurethanes by converting them into epoxies
or by hydroformylation. The incorporation of oils in the
polyurethanes provides a great opportunity to tailor the
properties of polyurethane products.