Study of the Synergistic Effect of Nanoporous Nickel Phosphates on Novel Intumescent Flame Retardant Polypropylene Composites

Shibin Nie,Chi Zhang,De-Yi Wang,Qingliang He,Daowei Ding,Chao Peng

doi:10.1155/2015/289298

Abstract

A char forming agent (CFA) and silica-gel microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate (Si-MCAPP) were selected to form novel intumescent flame retardant system to prepare flame retardant polypropylene (PP) composites, and then the influences of nanoporous nickel phosphates (NiP) on the thermal and flame retardant properties of flame retardant PP composites were studied by the real time FTIR (RTFTIR) spectra, limited oxygen index (LOI) test, and the scanning electron microscopy. RTFTIR shows the addition of NiP can improve the thermal stability of flame retardant PP composites. LOI test shows LOI value is increased with the increase of the content of NiP, and the optimized concentration of NiP is 1.0%. Furthermore, smoke toxicity of the novel flame retardant PP composites was studied by mice experiment. The upper limit of the no death smoke concentration of the composite is 12.37 mg/L.

Highlights

As one of the most widely used polyolefin, polypropylene (PP) has applied to many fields such as architectural materials and cars
A char forming agent (CFA) and silica-gel microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate (Si-MCAPP) were selected to form novel intumescent flame retardant system to prepare flame retardant polypropylene (PP) composites, and the influences of nanoporous nickel phosphates (NiP) on the thermal and flame retardant properties of flame retardant PP composites were studied by the real time FTIR (RTFTIR) spectra, limited oxygen index (LOI) test, and the scanning electron microscopy
The influences of intumescent flame retardant system (IFRs) on thermal and flame retardancy properties of PP have been studied, and the results demonstrate the flame retardant PP composites with good flame retardant properties and excellent water resistance [4]

Summary

Introduction

As one of the most widely used polyolefin, polypropylene (PP) has applied to many fields such as architectural materials and cars. The combustibility limits the range of its application fields It needs to make this plastic flame retardant [1]. Intumescent flame retardants are one of the effective halogenfree flame retardants (IFRs) [2, 3]. CFA and silica-gel microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate (Si-MCAPP) microencapsulated by SiO2 gel were used to form novel intumescent flame retardant system (IFRs) with better flame retardant and excellent water resistance properties. Zeolites [5,6,7] and divalent or multivalent metallic compounds especially Ni compound [8,9,10] can improve the flame retardant behaviours of intumescent systems in polymer, but the efficiency of synergists still needs to be improved. It has been demonstrated that NiP had an excellent synergistic effect with traditional intumescent flame retardants based on ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and pentaerythritol (PER) [12]. Smoke toxicity of the novel flame retardant PP composites was investigated by mice experiment

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Smoke Toxicity Analysis

Conclusions