Flammability Properties of Phosphine Oxide Copolymers and of Commodity Polymers With New Flame Retardant Additives.
Flammability Properties of Phosphine Oxide Copolymers
and of Commodity Polymers With New Flame Retardant
Additives.
(950 K)
Kashiwagi, T.; Gilman, J. W.; McGrath, J. E.; Wan, I. Y.
Tomorrow's Trends in Fire Retardant Regulations,
Testing, Applications and Current Technologies. Fall
Conference. Proceedings. October 13-16, 1996, Naples,
FL, 1-23 pp, 1996.
Keywords:
flame retardants; flammability; nylon; phosphine oxide;
copolymers; additives; silica gel
Abstract:
Several different phosphine oxides, triphenylphosphine
oxide, diphenylphosphine oxide, and
trihydroxylpropylphosphine oxide, are added into nylon
6,6 by copolymerization and by blending. The
flammability properties of these samples are measured in
the Cone Calorimeter. The results show that the
addition of any of these phosphine oxides to nylon 6,6
reduces the heat release rate significantly but
increases the amount of CO and soot particles. Although
small amounts of char are formed with the phosphine
oxides, the flame retardant site appears to be mainly in
the gas phase. No significant difference in
flammability properties is observed between the
copolymer samples and the blended sample. A small
quantity of silica gel with K2CO3 as an additive reduces
heat release rate of many different polymers and forms
carbonaceous char for PP, PMMA, nylon 6,6 and also
significantly enhances char yields of cellulose and PVA.
The solid-state NMR data of char formed from PVA with
silica gel/K2CO3 show increase in aromaticity in the
char compared with in the char generated from PVA only.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899