The influence of highly dispersed Cu2O-anchored MoS2 hybrids on reducing smoke toxicity and fire hazards for rigid polyurethane foam

Abstract

The extensive utilization of rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) as construction insulation material has brought two main troubles to our society: fire risks and toxic hazards. To reduce the fire hazards of RPUF, a layered MoS2 decorated with Cu2O nanoparticles was creativity obtained by hydrothermal technology and facile wet chemical treatment for reducing the toxic product formations of polyurethane nanocomposites during combustion. Due to the low weight ratio of Cu2O attached onto MoS2, the resulting Cu2O-MoS2 hybrid effectively prevented the MoS2 nanosheets from restacking. However, the Cu2O-MoS2-M hybrid was produced by increasing content of Cu2O, which has the characteristic stacked layer structure of MoS2. Reduced harmful organic volatiles and the toxic gases (e.g. a respective decrease of ca. 28% and 53% for CO and NOx products) were obtained because of synergistic effect between the physical adsorption of MoS2 and catalysis action of Cu2O. Notably, the addition of Cu2O-MoS2 hybrids led to high char formation of the RPUF nanocomposite, indicating the effectively catalytic carbonization property. In addition, the N-Gas model for predicting fire smoke toxicity was developed and demonstrated. Furthermore, the research offers direct proofs of the negative influence of the stacked MoS2 on reducing the smoke toxicity for RPUF nanocomposites.