A flame retardant rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) system containing functionalized graphene oxide (fGO), expandable graphite (EG), and dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP) was prepared and investigated. The results show that the limiting oxygen index (LOI) of the flame-retardant-polyurethane-fGO (FRPU/fGO) composites reached 28.1% and UL-94 V-0 rating by adding only 0.25 g fGO. The thermal degradation of FRPU samples was studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis. The activation energies (Ea) for the main stage of thermal degradation were obtained using the Kissinger equation. It was found that the fGO can considerably increase the thermal stability and decrease the flammability of RPUF. Additionally, the Ea of FRPU/fGO reached 191 kJ·mol-1, which was 61 kJ·mol-1 higher than that of the pure RPUF (130 kJ·mol-1). Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed that fGO strengthened the compactness and the strength of the "vermicular" intumescent char layer improved the insulation capability of the char layer to gas and heat.
Keywords: activation energies; graphene oxide; rigid polyurethane foam; thermogravimetric analysis.