Fire safety improvement of para-aramid fiber in thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer

Xilei Chen; Wenduo Wang; Shaoxiang Li; Chuanmei Jiao

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2016.11.065

Fire safety improvement of para-aramid fiber in thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer

J Hazard Mater. 2017 Feb 15;324(Pt B):789-796. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2016.11.065. Epub 2016 Nov 24.

Authors

Xilei Chen¹, Wenduo Wang¹, Shaoxiang Li¹, Chuanmei Jiao²

Affiliations

¹ College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong 266042, PR China.
² College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong 266042, PR China. Electronic address: jiaochm@qust.edu.cn.

PMID: 27899240
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2016.11.065

Abstract

This article mainly studied fire safety effects of para-aramid fiber (AF) in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The TPU/AF composites were prepared by molten blending method, and then the fire safety effects of all TPU composites were tested using cone calorimeter test (CCT), microscale combustion colorimeter test (MCC), smoke density test (SDT), and thermogravimetric/fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-IR). The CCT test showed that AF could improve the fire safety of TPU. Remarkably, the peak value of heat release rate (pHRR) and the peak value of smoke production rate (pSPR) for the sample with 1.0wt% content of AF were decreased by 52.0% and 40.5% compared with pure TPU, respectively. The MCC test showed that the HRR value of AF-2 decreased by 27.6% compared with pure TPU. TG test showed that AF promoted the char formation in the degradation process of TPU; as a result the residual carbon was increased. The TG-IR test revealed that AF had increased the thermal stability of TPU at the beginning and reduced the release of CO₂ with the decomposition going on. Through the analysis of the results of this experiment, it will make a great influence on the study of the para-aramid fiber in the aspect of fire safety of polymer.

Keywords: Fire safety; Flame retardant; Para-aramid fiber; Thermoplastic polyurethane.