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Furfuryl alcohol is extracted from the waste of sugarcane bagasse. Polyfurfuryl alcohol (PFA), as a matrix, is obtained from the acid catalysed polymerization of furfuryl alcohol. The difficulties encountered in the conversion of furfuryl alcohol as monomers into polyfurfuryl alcohol by homopolymerization are attributed to the exothermic reaction often leading to dangerous explosion, which can be overcome by the approach presented in the South African and World Patents [4,5] filed by the author. The processes provided herein can be used to prepare various shapes and sizes of reinforced or unreinforced molded products that can also be used in construction sectors.
PFA based biopolymer shows tensile strength and tensile modulus of 15-17 MPa and 2.0-2.6 GPa, respectively with almost 100% water resistance. Glass transition temperature of polyfurfuryl alcohol is 117-118 °C. Interestingly, the biopolymer is thermally stable with maximum degradation temperature of 475 °C with a char yield of 63%. The thermal properties of the PFA based biopolymer prepared by this method are similar or somewhat higher than that of phenolics which are widely used in construction sectors.
To be used as in construction sectors, the commercial development of this technology requires a specification of the conditions for the synthesis of large biopolymer sheets with definite thickness and surface area. High-temperature treatment effects on polymers are highly dependent on the primary effects of thickness, and surface area on the relevant thermodynamic and transport properties of polymerization process. Thickness and temperature as a fundamental state variable drastically influences the processing parameters of PFA based sheets. In this work, biopolymers sheets have been developed focusing on scale-up of the process using the three parameters thickness, temperature and the surface area.