By displaying thermoplastic, elastomeric and thermoset behavior depending on their chemical and morphological properties, polyurethanes caught attention since 1937 when Bayer and his co-workers made for the first time with the reaction of polyester diol and isocyanate. To produce great range of versatility, various isocyanates can be used for making linear or cross-linked polyurethanes. Here we used IPDI as isocyanate and Bamboo polyol as polyalcohol to prepare hard polyurethane and polyurethane foam. A cheap copper-based catalyst has been synthesized from discarded motherboard to replace the industrially used tin-based catalyst DBTDL [dibutyltin(IV) dilaurate] which is expensive and found almost similar productivity compared to conventional catalyst DBTDL. By optimizing catalyst loading, time and temperature, 97% yield was obtained with 1.8mol% catalyst loading in 2 hours. A plausible mechanism has also been proposed.

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/ra/c6ra14506j#!divAbstract