Eco-Friendly of Sound-Absorbing Material Based on Polyurethane-Urea with Natural Fiber Waste

Abstract

Noise has a wide impact on human health and non-health. One of the sound-absorbing materials commonly used in the community is polyurethane-urea foam. However, public concerns about the environment because the availability of petroleum as a raw material for polyurethane-urea foam synthesis is limited, and the waste pollutes the environment, posing a new challenge to be researched. For this reason, this study aims to develop polyurethane-urea foam with a mixture of natural fiber waste as an eco-friendly alternative to sound-absorbing materials. The raw materials used were natural fiber waste (rice straw waste and plywood industry sawdust waste) and chemicals (PEG, MDI, EDA, MAH), with a waste composition of 5% (w/w). The synthesis method employed was a one-shot method. The synthesized foam was characterized by FTIR, camera microscope, SEM, TGA and acoustic tests. The results uncovered that the sample had peaks in the absorption of the functional groups NH, OH, Urethane, Aromatic, and Amide. The morphological structure of the foam consisted of an open cell and a closed cell. Its thermal resistance was above 125°C. In addition, the foam with the highest sound-absorbing ability was polyurethane-urea foam/rice straw waste at 0.83 at a frequency of 4312 Hz.