Enhancing the Performance of Thermoplastic Polyurethanes Using Renewable Aromatic Moieties

There is an urgent global demand for sustainable alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics. Polyurethanes, which account for nearly 10% of all plastics, have been an area of focus of sustainable plastic alternatives but are traditionally dominated by nonrenewable aromatic diisocyanates which have been proven to be a challenge to source renewably. While polyurethanes can be synthesized entirely from renewable sources using aliphatic diisocyanates, they often exhibit inferior mechanical properties compared to their petroleum-based counterparts. Here, we report a systematic approach incorporating the renewable aromatic monomer, furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) with aliphatic diisocyanate, hexamethylene diisocyanate, to enhance the properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) by altering aromatic content in the polyester polyol. We demonstrate that incorporating 0–30% FDCA into polyester polyols can manipulate the mechanical, thermal, and structural properties of TPUs to give advantageous performance for sustainably sourced polyurethanes.