TOXIC COMBUSTION PRODUCTS FROM FIRE RETARDED NANOCOMPOSITE POLYMERS

There is a constant demand for stronger, lighter, less expensive and more versatile polymer composites to meet the demands of industry and consumers. Polymer nanocomposites, representing the general class of nanocomposite organic/inorganic hybrid materials, are a fast growing area of research into new alternative materials to conventional filled polymers. Nanocomposite materials show improved properties, such as mechanical strength, modulus, chemical resistance and, to a limited extent, improvements in fire behaviour over conventional materials. In general, the properties of nanocomposite materials depend not only on the properties of their individual components, but also on their morphology, dispersion and interfacial characteristics. Toxic product yields, as well as heat released or smoke emissions need proper investigation in order to understand formulation, structure or property relationships. This work presents toxic product yields from PA 6 polymer systems each in the presence or absence of nanofillers, conventional fire retardants, or both. The concentrations of combustion products, and predicted toxicity for different types of polymers expressed by FED, were generated using a bench-scale fire model (steady state tube furnace, the Purser Furnace, ISO TS 19700) replicating different fire scenarios. Identification and quantification of combustion gases and particularly their toxic components from different fire conditions was undertaken by using continuous Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The relationship between type of the fire, the ventilation conditions, and the toxic product yields for all range of variables affecting conditions (temperature, fuel chemistry) are reported