Influence of polymer additives on thermal decomposition and smoke emission of poly(vinyl chloride)

Abstract

The influence of polymer additives and metal oxides on thermal decomposition and smoke suppression of poly(vinyl chloride) was investigated using a cone calorimeter at an incident heat flux of 25 kW m −2. Acrylate (acrylic K120N), chlorinated polyethylene, PVC-MC100 and polyethylene wax were used as polymer additives, and metal oxides including CuO, MoO 3 and FeOOH as smoke suppressants. The experimental data indicate that polymer additives and metal oxides present important effects on the thermal decomposition, heat release and smoke emission of PVC. Polyethylene wax can obviously enhance the mass loss rate (MLR) of the carbon backbone of PVC, and shorten its appearance time. This fact can be further confirmed by the behaviour and data of heat release and smoke emission in the PVC/polyethylene wax system. The amount of smoke emission in polyethylene wax system is more than that in other systems based upon TSP, pk-SPR and av-SEA. The smoke suppression effect in PVC/acrylic K120N/CuO and PVC/acrylic K120N/FeOOH is better than that in other systems. This indicates that acrylic K120N is an effective polymer additive in reducing smoke emission of PVC. Furthermore, the incorporation of PVC-MC100 in PVC is advantageous to smoke emission of PVC treated with metal oxides. CuO, MoO 3 and FeOOH are still effective smoke suppressants for PVC with polymer additives.