Fabrication of green alginate-based and layered double hydroxides flame retardant for enhancing the fire retardancy properties of polypropylene

Sheng Xu; Si-Yu Li; Min Zhang; Hong-Yan Zeng; Kun Wu; Xian-Yao Tian; Chao-Rong Chen; Yong Pan

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.115891

Fabrication of green alginate-based and layered double hydroxides flame retardant for enhancing the fire retardancy properties of polypropylene

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Apr 15:234:115891. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.115891. Epub 2020 Jan 20.

Authors

Sheng Xu¹, Si-Yu Li², Min Zhang², Hong-Yan Zeng³, Kun Wu², Xian-Yao Tian², Chao-Rong Chen², Yong Pan²

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan, China. Electronic address: xusheng2016@xtu.edu.cn.
² College of Chemical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan, China.
³ College of Chemical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan, China. Electronic address: hongyanzeng99@hotmail.com.

PMID: 32070511
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.115891

Abstract

An efficient and bio-based alginate pillared hydrotalcite (SA@LDHs) was fabricated via calcination-reconstruction manner with sodium alginate (SA) and hydrotalcite (LDHs-C), and used as novel flame retardant for polypropylene (PP). The morphologies and combustion properties of SA@LDHs and its hybrid with PP composites (PP/SA@LDHs) had been characterized by SEM, TGA, cone calorimetry, LOI and UL-94 measurements. With 30 wt% loading, the SA@LDHs achieved a LOI value of 30.9 % and a UL-94 V-0 rating, whereas the LDHs-C exhibited only LOI value of 27.6 % and a UL-94 V-1 rating. The peak heat release rate, total heat release and total smoke production of PP/SA@LDHs were 260.8 kW m^-2, 61.3 MJ m^-2 and 8.2 m², respectively, which presented declines of 69.2 %, 42.8 % and 32.2 % compared with those of Neat PP. These improvements could be attributed to the presence of the radical-trapping effect of SA, which leading to promote PP chains to participate in the carbonization process.

Keywords: Alginate; Flame retardant; Layered double hydroxides; Polypropylene.