Smoke suppression of [Glu]H2PW12O40 in thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer

Abstract

As is known there is a large amount of smoke released from the combustion process of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU). To reduce the fire risk of TPU is one of the research contents in the fire safety fields. In this paper, [Glu]H2PW12O40 was used as smoke suppressant in TPU, and the smoke suppression effect of [Glu]H2PW12O40 was intensively investigated using nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electron microscope, cone calorimeter test (CCT), smoke density test (SDT), and thermogravimetric analysis/infrared spectrometry, respectively. In the CCT test, the peak value of smoke production rate (SPR) of TPU-3 with 0.5 mass% of [Glu]H2PW12O40 was 0.036 m2 s−1, reduced by 75% compared with the peak SPR value of TPU-0 without [Glu]H2PW12O40 (0.145 m2 s−1). [Glu]H2PW12O40 could decrease the total smoke release (TSR) from 1560 to 694 m2 m−2. And [Glu]H2PW12O40 could decrease the smoke factor from 1838 to 538 W m−2. The SDT results showed that the luminous flux value of TPU-3 with 0.5 mass% of [Glu]H2PW12O40 decreased by 30% compared with pure TPU at the end of the test without flame. The photographs from the CCT test showed that [Glu]H2PW12O40 could promote char residue formation. TG test also revealed that [Glu]H2PW12O40 could improve the thermal stability at high temperature. At the end of thermal decomposition, the mass of TPU-3 with 0.5 mass% of [Glu]H2PW12O40 increased 6.3% compared with the mass of TPU-0 without [Glu]H2PW12O40. Based on the above result, it could be concluded that [Glu]H2PW12O40 can suppress smoke generation by promoting char generation. In addition, [Glu]H2PW12O40 has a good prospect in smoke suppression of TPU.