Chicken feather protein for the thermal stability and combustion performance of rigid polyurethane foam

Abstract Rigid polyurethane foams (RPUFs) were synthesized with chicken feather protein using the “one-step method” of all-water foaming. Thermogravimetry, pyrolysis kinetics analysis, Cone calorimetry and smoke density (Ds) were used to investigate the effects of chicken feather protein on thermal stability and combustion performance of RPUFs. The results showed that the modified RPUFs with 2.5 wt% chicken feather protein (RPUF-CF1) had the lowest mass loss, the highest integrated program pyrolysis temperature, the highest activation energy, the lowest Ds (13.3), the highest light transmittance (79.3 %), the lowest heat release rate (22.0 kW/m2 and 30.6 kW/m2) and total heat release (2.4 MJ/m2 and 2.8 MJ/m2), which indicated that RPUF-CF1 had better thermal stability and combustion performance. The current research results provide a useful reference for the preparation of RPUFs with good thermal stability by bio-based modification.