Aminolysis of cyclic-carbonate vegetable oils as a non-isocyanate route for the synthesis of polyurethane: A kinetic and thermal study

Production of polyurethane is increasing since the recent years. Nevertheless, this production uses hazardous chemicals, which is isocyanate. Academy has put a lot of effort to develop some non-isocyanate polyurethane routes. One of the most promising is the aminolysis of cyclic-carbonate by diamine. To industrialize this way of production, kinetic and thermodynamic data are needed. The first steps were to optimize the production of methyl oleate, epoxidized methyl oleate and carbonated methyl oleate. Then, a kinetic model was built for a model reaction which is the aminolysis of carbonated methyl oleate by n-butylamine by taking into account the side reaction of amidation. The model fits correctly the experimental data. A Tian-Calvet calorimeter was used to determine the different reaction enthalpies. It was found that the reactions of aminolysis and amidation were low exothermic reactions.