Engineering Sulfur-Containing Polymeric Fire-Retardant Coatings for Fire-Safe Rigid Polyurethane Foam

Yang Fang; Zhewen Ma; Dewang Wei; Youming Yu; Lei Liu; Yongqian Shi; Jiefeng Gao; Long-Cheng Tang; Guobo Huang; Pingan Song

doi:10.1002/marc.202400068

Engineering Sulfur-Containing Polymeric Fire-Retardant Coatings for Fire-Safe Rigid Polyurethane Foam

Macromol Rapid Commun. 2024 Apr 9:e2400068. doi: 10.1002/marc.202400068. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yang Fang¹, Zhewen Ma², Dewang Wei¹, Youming Yu¹, Lei Liu^{3

4}, Yongqian Shi⁵, Jiefeng Gao⁶, Long-Cheng Tang⁷, Guobo Huang⁸, Pingan Song⁹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China.
² Interdisciplinary Materials Research Center, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, P. R. China.
³ College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266045, China.
⁴ Centre for Further Materials, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield Central, QLD, 4300, Australia.
⁵ College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Fuzhou University, 2 Xueyuan Road, Fuzhou, 350116, China.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Organosilicon Chemistry and Material Technology of MoE, College of Material, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
⁸ School of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Engineering, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, China.
⁹ School of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Centre for Future Materials, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, QLD, 4300, Australia.

PMID: 38593218
DOI: 10.1002/marc.202400068

Abstract

With the advantages of lightweight and low thermal conductivity properties, polymeric foams are widely employed as thermal insulation materials for energy-saving buildings but suffer from inherent flammability. Flame-retardant coatings hold great promise for improving the fire safety of these foams without deteriorating the mechanical-physical properties of the foam. In this work, four kinds of sulfur-based flame-retardant copolymers are synthesized via a facile radical copolymerization. The sulfur-containing monomers serve as flame-retardant agents including vinyl sulfonic acid sodium (SPS), ethylene sulfonic acid sodium (VS), and sodium p-styrene sulfonate (VSS). Additionally, 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and 4-hydroxybutyl acrylate are employed to enable a strong interface adhesion with polymeric foams through interfacial H-bonding. By using as-synthesized waterborne flame-retardant polymeric coating with a thickness of 600 µm, the coated polyurethane foam (PUF) can achieve a desired V-0 rating during the vertical burning test with a high limiting oxygen index (LOI) of >31.5 vol%. By comparing these sulfur-containing polymeric fire-retardant coatings, poly(VS-co-HEA) coated PUF demonstrates the best interface adhesion capability and flame-retardant performance, with the lowest peak heat release rate of 166 kW m^-2 and the highest LOI of 36.4 vol%. This work provides new avenues for the design and performance optimization of advanced fire-retardant polymeric coatings.

Keywords: fire retardant; fire‐retardant coatings; polyurethane foam; sulfur‐containing polymers.

Abstract

Grants and funding