Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Vol.130, 30-39, 2017
Effect of organic co-blowing agents on the morphology of CO2 blown microcellular polystyrene foams
Microcellular polystyrene (PS) foams blown with supercritical CO2 in batch processes have usually porosities lower than desired for good heat insulators. Porosities can be increased by co-blowing agents. We studied effects of n-pentane (nC5) and cyclopentane (cC5) on foaming in a batch. Neat PS films were impregnated first with nC5 or cC5, then with high-pressure or supercritical CO2, and finally foamed. Cell diameters and bulk porosities were determined from SEM images. The co-blowing agents reduced the solid skin, they acted mainly as plasticizers, both porosity and cell diameters increased with their concentration. After crossing a particular concentration, the cell size remained almost constant. Impregnation of neat PS with high-pressure liquid CO2 near room temperature enabled to prepare foams with cell diameters below 10 mu m and porosities about 80 %, which has not been reported before. Hence, organic co-blowing agents could be used to increase the porosity of CO2 blown foams.