Investigation on the Chemical and Physical Properties of Vegetable Oil-Based Polyols for their Potential Application as Asphalt Rejuvenators

Up to date, no extravagant attempts have been made to use the vegetable oil-based polyols as rejuvenator agents for aged asphalts. In this context, the nature and composition of these biodegradable products need to be identified and physicochemical properties of different nature of compounds need to be measured. Three different vegetable oil-based polyols designed as castor oil polyol, soybean flexible polyol, and soybean rigid polyol were characterized by FT-IR, TLC-FID, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR and by the determination of some usual characteristics such as acid value, hydroxyl value, iodine value, and viscosity. It is speculated that the soybean flexible polyol may serve as a potential rejuvenator for aged asphalts.