Morphology and Mechanical Properties of Nylon-1010-filled Rigid Polyurethane Foams

A preliminary study on the influences of the nylon-1010 powder, as a new candidate for fillers, on the cellular structure and mechanical properties of rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) is presented. By observation of the scanning electron micrographs, it was found that the cells of the nylon powder-filled RPUF were mainly spheroid. When the nylon content was 5 wt%, the nylon particles were dispersed rather uniformly, whereas when the nylon content exceeded 10 wt%, the particles were hard to disperse in the matrix, and formed agglomerates. The compressive and tensile strengths of the unfilled RPUF exhibited a power-law dependence with respect to density of the foam: ^{* 1} /4 ( ^* ) n. The measured tensile modulus of the unfilled RPUF was described well by a simple geometric model. The compressive modulus was also found to follow a power-law behavior with respect to foam density. Addition of 5 wt% nylon powder increased the tensile modulus and strength, but without a change in the density dependence. It can be found that the tensile modulus of the foam with 5 and 10 wt% nylon powder fit the predicted model well, but, at the filler concentration of 15 and 20 wt%, the power-law behavior did not work.