Fire hazard suppression of intumescent flame retardant polypropylene based on a novel Ni‐containing char‐forming agent

Abstract

Reducing the fire hazard of polypropylene (PP) is an important research direction in the fields of fire safety materials. In this article, a novel Ni‐containing char‐forming agent (TTPN) was successfully synthesized, using tris(2‐hydroxyethyl) isocyanurate (THEIC), terephthalic acid, and nickel dihydrogen phosphate. Then, TTPN was combined with the silica‐gel microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate (OS‐MCAPP) to prepare intumescent flame retardant PP composites. From the results of the limiting oxygen index (LOI) test and cone calorimeter, the composite containing 30% IFR (OS‐MCAPP: TTPN = 3:2) shows the highest LOI value of 33.5%, and its peak heat release rate is 275.5 kWm −2 , decreased by 79.0% and 37.4% than those of pure PP and the composite containing the char‐forming agent without Ni. Meanwhile, the composite containing TTPN present the best smoke and CO 2 /CO suppression. The results indicate that TTPN has an excellent ability to dramatically reduce the fire hazard of PP.