Modification of Intumescent Coatings with Porous Zirconium Silicate

Abstract

AbstractTwo porous zirconium silicates were synthesized by the interaction of cubic octa(tetramethylammonium)silicate with zirconium oxychloride. The results show that the porosity of the obtained products depends on the synthesis conditions. The surface area of porous zirconium silicate ZrSi‐1 synthesized at room temperature was 3.45 m2/g, and the surface area of porous zirconium silicate ZrSi‐2 synthesized when heated to 65 °C was 23.77 m2/g. X‐ray diffraction data from ZrSi‐1 and ZrSi‐2 show that their structure is amorphous. The synthesized porous silicates were used as modifiers for intumescent fire‐retardant coatings. The obtained intumescent coatings were tested in a muffle furnace at 600 °C. It was found that the use of porous zirconium silicate in intumescent coatings increases their char expansion, which indirectly shows that the porous zirconium silicate increases the flame‐retardant properties of intumescent coating. Moreover, it was shown that the use of zirconium silicate with higher porosity leads to higher char expansion and as a result to higher efficiency of the fire‐retardant coating. So, the non‐modified coatings, coatings with 0.5 % ZrSi‐1, coatings with 0.5 % ZrSi‐2, coatings with 1 % ZrSi‐1, coatings with 1 % ZrSi‐2, had the char expansion of 17, 23, 32, 36, 38 times, respectively.