Biobased foams for thermal insulation: material selection, processing, modelling, and performance

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Sustainable Polymers
• Circular Economy

Background:

• Growing demand for sustainable materials and circular economy drives research into biobased foams.
• Existing biobased foams show promise, but fundamental understanding of performance determinants is lacking.
• Low thermal conductivity is critical for applications like insulation and temperature-controlled packaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review progress in biobased foam development, materials selection, processing, and performance comparison.
• To examine modeling efforts for physical properties and challenges in applying them to biobased systems.
• To address data gaps in insulation capability using dimensional analysis.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of biobased foam research, materials, and processing.
• Compilation of thermal conductivity, cell size, and density data.
• Application of dimensional analysis to establish structure-property relationships and fill data gaps.

Main Results:

• Identified a trend towards fully biobased and compostable foams, with partially biobased polyurethane foams as consistent performers.
• Compiled data illustrating the relationship between foam structure (cell size, density) and thermal conductivity.
• Revealed a power law correlation between thermal conductivity and relative density through dimensional analysis.

Conclusions:

• Despite challenges, biobased foams offer competitive thermal and mechanical properties.
• Dimensional analysis provides a method to utilize existing data for predicting promising biobased foam materials and processing.
• Further data reporting on insulation capabilities is needed to advance the field.