Effect of Boric Acid on Volatile Products of Thermooxidative Degradation of Epoxy Polymers

O B Nazarenko,P M Visakh,T V Melnikova,P B Bukhareva

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/671/1/012041

Abstract

The polymeric materials are characterized by high flammability. The use of flame retardants in order to reduce the flammability of polymers can lead to the formation of toxic gaseous products under fire conditions. In this work we studied the effect of boric acid on the volatile products of thermooxidative degradation of epoxy polymers. The comparative investigations were carried out on the samples of the unfilled epoxy resin and epoxy resin filled with a boric acid at percentage 10 wt. %. The analysis of the volatile decomposition products and thermal stability of the samples under heating in an oxidizing medium was performed using a thermal mass-spectrometric analysis. It is found that the incorporation of boric acid into the polymer matrix increases the thermal stability of epoxy composites and leads to a reduction in the 2-2.7 times of toxic gaseous products

Highlights

Polymeric materials are widely used in industry and everyday life due to such properties as low density, high strength, chemical stability, ease of processing etc
In this study we investigated the thermal characteristics and the volatile products of two samples: 1) the sample E0 was the unfilled cured epoxy resin; 2) the sample EB10 was the epoxy resin filled with boric acid of concentration 10 wt. %
We have investigated the effect of fine powder of boric acid used as filler in the epoxy resin, on gaseous products formed upon heating of the epoxy polymers in air up to 800 °C

Summary

Introduction

Polymeric materials are widely used in industry and everyday life due to such properties as low density, high strength, chemical stability, ease of processing etc. A significant disadvantage of polymeric materials and products made of them is high flammability. Burning of polymeric materials in fire leads to environmental pollution by combustion products; it causes human injury and deaths as well as entails huge economic losses [1,2,3,4]. Thermal decomposition and combustion of polymers is accompanied by the release of heat, smoke and toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, water, methane, ethylene, propylene, and others [5, 6]. Among the toxic gases carbon monoxide is considered the major cause of fire deaths. Decrease in flammability and combustibility of polymers is an urgent problem. One of the methods of this problem decision is the incorporation of flame retardants into the polymers. Current studies aimed at finding and developing environmentally friendly flame retardants [7,8,9,10]

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