Flame Retardancy and Thermal Stability of Polyurethane Foam Composites containing Carbon Additives

摘要

Polyurethane (PU) is an important class of polymers that have wide application in a number of different industrial sectors. The goal of this work was the synthesis of flame-retarded PU foam with expandable graphite (EG) or commercial graphene. The flame retardancy and thermal stability of the foams has been studied through cone calorimeter analysis, the limited oxygen index and thermal conductivity. The presence of expandable graphite brings an improvement in fire behavior. In particular, the limited oxygen index increases in a linear way and the highest limited oxygen index values are obtained for EG-PU foams. The results from the cone calorimeter are in agreement with those of oxygen index; EG filled foams show a considerable decrease of maximum-heat release rate (M-HRR) with respect to unfilled foams. The results of thermal conductivity show that an increase in expandable graphite amount in PU foams lead to an increased conductivity.