Analysis on Properties of Water-Based Fire-Retardant Nano-Coatings

Abstract

The study explores the effects of the flame-retardant properties of nano-particles on water-based fire-retardant coatings, which include the effects on thermal stability and combustion properties. The coating used by the paper is acrylate resin (VAC), which is added with 3 basic components, including fire-retardant ammonium polyphosphate, pentaerythritol and melamine (APP-PER-MEL), to form an itumescent fire retardant (IFR). Then the fire retardent is added with magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2, MH) nano-particles, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNT) and zinc borate (ZB) nano-powders of different concentrations, to form water-based fire-retardant coatings. By adjusting and controlling the concentration ratios of flame retardant to the 3 kinds of nano-particles with different profiles, the study analyzes the fire-retardant multiplying effect of nano-particles on water-based coatings. The nano-coatings mixed in special proportion are coated on plywood. Through thermogeavimetric analyzer (TGA) and cone calorimeter (CCT), the study inspects the thermal stability and combustion properties of water-based fire-retardant nano-coatings. The experimental results show that when the fire-retardant nano-coating composed of MH of concentration 28% and MWNT of concentration 2% is compared with the fire-retardant coating added with flame retardant only, the amount of residue can be increased by around 80% at combustion temperature 580°C. Besides, when the fire-retardant nano-coating composed of MH of weight concentration 28% and MWNT of weight concentration 2% is compared with the fire-retardant coating added with flame retardant only, the maximum heat release can be decreased by about 15%. The time required for this fire-retardant nano-coating to achieve maximum heat release is delayed by around 70 seconds when compared with other samples. Besides, the char-layered structure formed during thermal decomposition of nano-coating is more compact than the char-layered structure of water-based coating composed of the flame-retardant APP-PER-MEL components only. Therefore, nano-coatings can effectively decrease the transfer of heat and inflammable volatiles to plywood surface, and can enhance the flame retardant performance of plywood.