Effective biobased thermally insulating materials are needed to address growing concerns of both climate change and plastic waste. Many experimental biobased foams exhibit equal or superior properties as traditional thermally insulating foams. This review targets recent developments in biobased foams for use in residential construction, their fabrication methods, and future prospects.

Abstract

A surge of research into renewable foams has yielded an array of high-performance polymeric materials, many of which exhibit promising properties for next generation thermal insulating materials. Biobased materials are of particular interest, due to growing concerns towards enhancing the circular economy while reducing fossil fuel dependency in the construction industry. This review outlines recent developments in biobased foams based on biobased polyurethanes (BPU), biobased phenol formaldehyde (BPF) and cellulose nanofibers (CNF) foams. These three areas of polymers are of particular interest due to their early stage of market adoption, yet significant industrial potential. As our focus is on construction materials, we will review their thermal, mechanical, and fire-retardant performance, their synthesis/fabrication methods and future prospects. Improving the scalability, reproducibility and cost-effectiveness of their production is vital for successful commercialization adoption.