Synthesis and characterization of cardanol/m-cresol resin based polyurethanes

Cardanol an agricultural byproduct of cashew industry with m-cresol in various molar concentrations were condensed with formaldehyde. The resins R1, R2 and R3 thus prepared and characterized. The spectral studies confirm that the ortho substitution is favoured when the concentration of m-cresol is more. Polyurethanes PUR1, PUR2 and PUR3 were prepared using this resins and hexamethylene diisocyanate, an aliphatic diisocyanate. The polyurethanes were characterized by thermal, mechanical and x-ray diffraction studies. The polyurethanes have good thermal stability. The crystallinity of the polyurethanes were analyzed by XRD studies.