Experimental and numerical perspective on the fire performance of MXene/chitosan/phytic acid coated flexible polyurethane foam

Bo Lin, Anthony Chun Yin Yuen*, Timothy Bo Yuan Chen, Bin Yu, Wei Yang, Jin Zhang, Yin Yao, Shuying Wu, Chun Hui Wang, Guan Heng Yeoh*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)
146 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Recent discoveries of two-dimensional transitional metal based materials have emerged as an excellent candidate for fabricating nanostructured flame-retardants. Herein, we report an eco-friendly flame-retardant for flexible polyurethane foam (PUF), which is synthesised by hybridising MXene (Ti3C2) with biomass materials including phytic acid (PA), casein, pectin, and chitosan (CH). Results show that coating PUFs with 3 layers of CH/PA/Ti3C2 via layer-by-layer approach reduces the peak heat release and total smoke release by 51.1% and 84.8%, respectively. These exceptional improvements exceed those achieved by a CH/Ti3C2 coating. To further understand the fundamental flame and smoke reduction phenomena, a pyrolysis model with surface regression was developed to simulate the flame propagation and char layer. A genetic algorithm was utilised to determine optimum parameters describing the thermal degradation rate. The superior flame-retardancy of CH/PA/Ti3C2 was originated from the shielding and charring effects of the hybrid MXene with biomass materials containing aromatic rings, phenolic and phosphorous compounds.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4684
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalScientific Reports
Volume11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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