Polyurethane foams are among the most efficient thermal insulation materials available today. Yet their production still relies heavily on fossil resources and isocyanates — compounds classified as hazardous and produced from highly toxic phosgene. Is it possible to achieve similar performances with biobased compounds and without using isocyanates?
This is one of the questions driving the PhD work of Grégoire Muller, who is describing his work:
"In our latest paper, we developed biobased epoxy-amine foams made from a renewable glycerol-derived epoxy resin and a non-CMR amine hardener. The approach embraces key principles of green chemistry: isocyanates-free system, water activation instead of hazardous catalysts, and foaming directly at room temperature in less than 10 minutes with exothermic reaction.
As far as we know, it is the first time that such materials were synthesized, combining low density with promising thermal insulation performance (47 mW·m⁻¹·K⁻¹), placing them among the most competitive non-isocyanate foam technologies reported to date. These results highlight the potential of a new generation of safer, bio-based and more sustainable polymer foams."
Gregoire is proud to share this publication as the first article of his PhD journey, conducted within the CIFRE convention supported by SOPREMA, and ANRT - Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie, at ICPEES
Access to the article : Green and Fast Synthesis of Biobased Epoxy Foams at Room Temperature for Thermal Insulation | ACS Applied Polymer Materials
Reference: Muller, G.; Duval, A.; Sarbu, A.; Avérous, L. Green and Fast Synthesis of Biobased Epoxy Foams at Room Temperature for Thermal Insulation. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.6c01805.
