Study of the microstructure, foaming property and cyclic compression performance of poly(ether-block-amide) foams fabricated by supercritical CO2 foaming

• Published in: The Journal of supercritical fluids 2023-11, Vol.202, p.106052, Article 106052
• Main Authors: Li, Wenli, Zhao, Guoqun, Wang, Guilong, Zhang, Lei, Shi, Zhanlin, Li, Xinyang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Compression properties; Hard segment; Microcellular foaming; Poly(ether-block-amide); Supercritical carbon dioxide
• ISSN: 0896-8446; 1872-8162
• DOI: 10.1016/j.supflu.2023.106052

This paper systematically explored the effects of molecular structure on the foaming behavior of poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBA) and its influence on foam cyclic compression properties. It was demonstrated that increasing the hard segment (HS) content of PEBA not only improved crystallization and melting strength, but also narrowed the melting peak and shifted it to higher temperatures. In contrast to other thermoplastic elastomers such as TPU, PEBA with a higher HS content showed a lager foam expansion ratio but a narrower foaming window. Increasing HS content improved compression strength but deteriorated resilience of PEBA foams. As the expansion ratio increased to 5-fold, there was no significant reinforcing effect of HS on strength and modulus of PEBA foams, while the resilience of the foams increased constantly with decreasing HS content and increasing expansion ratio. [Display omitted] •Structure-tunable PEBA foams with various HS contents were prepared.•Melting peak of PEBA with more HS narrowed and shifted to higher temperatures.•Increasing HS content broadened foam expansion ratio but narrowed foaming window.•Reinforcement of HS on strength was limited as expansion ratio increased.•Resilience increased with decreasing HS content and increasing expansion ratio.