Comfort Property of the Polyurethane Composite Foams Including Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Fumed Silica Nanoparticles

Flexible polyurethane foams are mainly used in the automobile industry for seat cushioning and sound adsorbing materials. The polyurethane composite foams were fabricated by applying hydrophobic and hydrophilic fumed silica nanoparticles in order to examine the comfort properties of the polyurethane composite foams. In the case of hydrophobic silica (Aerosil-R972), there was little change in morphology and comfort property, but hydrophilic silica (Aerosil-300) revealed higher changes in morphology and comfort properties than the hydrophobic case. Low compatibility of the hydrophilic silica nanoparticles with the polyurethane matrix resulted in larger a cavity and pore sizes compared to the hydrophobic silica case. As a result, the hydrophilic silica influenced much more on the morphology and comfort properties of the foams than the hydrophobic silica case. The sag factor and hysteresis loss were changed about 38% and 10%, respectively by applying 1.5 wt% of hydrophilic fumed silica nanoparticles in fabrications of flexible polyurethane composite foams.