Pyrolysis characteristics, kinetics and products of flexible polyurethane foam in luxury cruise ship via TG, FTIR, GC-MS and Shuffled Complex Evolution

Flexible polyurethane foam is widely used in furniture upholstery, car seats, and other products. Its safety has attracted increasing attention, especially fire safety in luxury cruise ship. Thermogravimetry-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TG-FTIR-GC-MS) is used to explore the pyrolysis characteristics of flexible polyurethane foam. The experimental results show that three weight loss peaks can be observed in the pyrolysis of flexible polyurethane foam under nitrogen atmosphere, which implies that the pyrolysis behaviors of isocyanate, polyol and catalyst are responsible for the peaks. The pyrolysis process of flexible polyurethane foam can be divided into two regions: the fifth-order reaction (F5) model and the one-dimensional diffusion (D1) model corresponding to regions I and II, respectively. The main pyrolysis intermediate function groups includes CO2, gaseous H2O, C-O, CO, C-H and other functional group stretching products. The amount of intermediate function groups generated in order of most to least is C-O > C-H > CO2 > CO > H2O. Six main products are generated under the N2 atmosphere, including Ethane, 2-Octen-1-ol, 3,7-dimethyl-isobutyrate, Diisopropyl ether, 1-Propoxypropan-2-yl acetate, Z-8-Methyl-9-tetradecenoic acid, Methyl 7,9-tridecadienyl ether and N-(2-Methylbutyl) undeca-(2E,4E)-diene-8,10-diynamide. The Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) algorithm is used to optimize the experimental pyrolysis kinetic parameters, and the optimized data show good agreement with the experimental data. •TG-FTIR-GC-MS was used to analysis the pyrolysis of flexible polyurethane foam.•SCE algorithm was used to optimize pyrolysis parameters of flexible polyurethane foam.•The pyrolysis of flexible polyurethane foam can be described by a three-step reaction.•The GC-MS data of flexible polyurethane foam are well agreeable with the FTIR data.•The mount of intermediate function groups is C-O > C-H > CO2 > CO > H2O.