Special Spherical Shell-shaped Foam deriving from Guanidine Phosphate – Pentaerythritol system and its Intumescent Fire Retardant effects on Polypropylene

Eco-friendly multifunctional coating for polyester-cotton blended fabrics with superior flame retardancy and antibacterial properties

Since the fire hazards of polyester-cotton blended (PTCO) fabrics and the hidden dangers of bacterial infection concerns caused by the contained cotton fiber, the design of flame retardant and antibacterial PTCO fabrics has received considerable attention. In this work, flame-retardant PTCO fabrics with satisfactory antibacterial properties were fabricated via a convenient and eco-friendly impregnation treatment involving guanidine phosphate (GP) and polyethylenimine (PEI). The prepared PTCO fabrics demonstrated excellent flame retardancy with a high limiting oxygen index value of 30.5 % and self-extinguishing capability, the damaged length was only 34 mm in the vertical flammability test. Furthermore, the peak heat release rate and the total heat release of coated PTCO fabrics were reduced significantly by 49 % and 38 %, respectively, indicating a substantial enhancement in fire safety. According to the analysis of the char residues and volatiles, GP presented great catalytic carbonization property, and PEI assisted the formation of the dense and stable carbon layer. The stable carbon layer effectively restricted mass and oxygen transfer between the PTCO fabrics and the environment. In addition, the introduction of PEI also produced more nonflammable gases to enhance the flame retardancy of the PTCO fabrics. Importantly, the GP/PEI coating barely deteriorate the physical and mechanical properties of the PTCO fabrics. The antibacterial rate of the GP/PEI-coated PTCO fabrics against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was 99.99 %, similar to that of GP-coated fabrics, indicating the efficacy antibacterial properties of GP, and the addition of PEI did not compromise the antibacterial properties of GP. This work offers an efficient and simple approach to producing multifunctional PTCO fabrics with excellent flame retardancy and antibacterial properties, which are hopeful to expand the promising application of PTCO fabrics.

Flame Retardant Properties of a Guanidine Phosphate-Zinc Borate Composite Flame Retardant on Wood

This work combines guanidine dihydrogen phosphate (GDP) and zinc borate (ZB) to modify wood via microwave-ultrasonic impregnation for realizing favorable flame retardancy and thermal stability, which were investigated by the limiting oxygen index (LOI), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and cone calorimetry tests (CONE). The treated samples show better performance in fire retardancy with the LOI value increasing to 47.8%, and the results of TGA indicate the outstanding thermal stability of wood. In addition, the decline of heat release rate, total heat release, smoke production rate, and total smoke production examined by CONE further demonstrates the achievement of excellent flame retardancy and smoke suppression properties of the GDP/ZB-modified wood.

Flax/PP and Flax/PLA Thermoplastic Composites: Influence of Fire Retardants on the Individual Components

This study is based on previously reported reaction to fire properties of flax fibre-reinforced polymeric (polypropylene, PP and polylactic acid, PLA) composites, prepared by pre-treating the fabrics with different fire retardants (FRs) prior to composite preparation. It was observed that while all of these treatments were very effective in flax/PLA in terms of achieving a V-0 rating in a UL-94 test, only an organophosphonate FR was capable of achieving a V-0 rating for flax/PP. However, all fire-retardant treatments impaired the mechanical properties of the composites; the reduction was more in flax/PLA compared to flax/PP composites. To understand these effects further, here thermal analysis and pyrolysis combustion flow calorimetry of the composites and each component separately treated with FRs have been conducted and the results analysed in terms of the effect on each component so as to observe any interaction between the different components. The results indicated that in flax/PLA composites, the water released during FR catalysed dehydration-decomposition of flax may hydrolyse PLA, changing decomposition pathway of PLA to produce less flammable volatile, hence resulting in reduced flammability.