Preparation and mechanical properties characterization: plasma‐modified expanded vermiculite/fabric‐reinforced foam composite materials

Expanded vermiculite (EV) powder was treated with a plasma, and the organic material polyurethane (PU) was combined with the inorganic material EV powder and fabric by means of particle reinforcement and surface reinforcement to prepare a PU cushioning composite material. EV was processed with plasma treatment beforehand. The resulting PU foam cushioning composites were evaluated for static compression performance and dynamic buffering performance, thereby examining the influences of plasma treatment time and fabric type. According to the correlation between the structure and compression performance, the presence of EV provides more nucleation sites during the foaming, which in turn increases the cell density and the compression performance of the PU cushioning composites. In particular, after plasma treatment of 800‐mesh EV for 20 and 30 min, the resulting composite foam had reduced cell diameter and increased density, and enhanced mechanical properties. Besides, in terms of surface reinforcement, covering the surface with fabric will make the foam enter the densification stage in advance, and its compression performance will be enhanced. As for the dynamic cushioning test, the surface‐covering fabric can increase the impact performance, and the foam cushioning material covered with double‐sided fabric is better. Specifically, PU foam covered with warp‐knitted spacer fabric on both sides exhibits a maximal dynamic compression performance as the impact load is attenuated to 5941 N, suggesting an energy absorption of 96.20%. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry