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Highly flame retardant, low thermally conducting, and hydrophobic phytic acid-guanazole-cellulose nanofiber composite foams

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Abstract

Cellulose as a bio-based material has attracted increasing attention due to its excellent properties. However, cellulose is very flammable and it is necessary to impart flame retardancy to cellulose nanofiber (CNF) foams. In this work, phytic acid (PA)-guanazole (GZ)-CNF composite foams were prepared by a simple freeze-drying method. SEM images indicated that the resultant PA-GZ-CNF composite foams exhibited a hierarchical porous structure. Moreover, the introduction of PA and GZ slightly affected the thermal conducting property of CNF foams. PA-GZ-CNF composite foams possessed excellent flame retardancy with a much higher LOI value and a UL-94 V-0 rating compared to that of pure CNF foams. Moreover, the peak of the heat release rate of PA-GZ-CNF composite foams exhibited a significant decrease from 57.80 to 29.27 kW/m2 and the total heat release declined from 2.10 to 1.21 MJ/m2. PA-GZ-CNF composite foams formed a protective char layer covered on the surface, which produced less thermal decomposition volatiles and prevented the spread of pyrolysis products into the gas phase. Additionally, PA-GZ-CNF composite foams achieved hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 104.0° after hydrophobic treatment without sacrificing their flame retardancy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.: WK2320000047), the USTC Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative (Grant No.: YD2320002004) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No.: 2021459).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Hongliang Ding, Shuilai Qiu, Xin Wang, Lei Song & Yuan Hu

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  1. Hongliang Ding
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  2. Shuilai Qiu
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  3. Xin Wang
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  4. Lei Song
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  5. Yuan Hu
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Correspondence to Xin Wang.

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Ding, H., Qiu, S., Wang, X. et al. Highly flame retardant, low thermally conducting, and hydrophobic phytic acid-guanazole-cellulose nanofiber composite foams. Cellulose 28, 9769–9783 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04159-0

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