Citation

Pöhler CM, Hamza M, Kolb T, Bachtiar EV, Yan L, Kasal B. Polymers (Basel) 2023; 15(20): e4096.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publications Institute)

DOI

10.3390/polym15204096

PMID

37896342

Abstract

The fire performance of epoxy and carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites with and without fire retardants (FR) (i.e., ammonium polyphosphate (APP), aluminum trihydroxide (ATH), melamine (MEL), expandable graphite (EG)) was investigated. A design of experiment (DoE) approach was applied to study the single- and multifactorial effects of FR. The fire performance of epoxy and CFRP was evaluated by limiting the oxygen index (LOI) and heat release, which were obtained by limiting the oxygen index test and cone calorimetry. It was found that mixtures of 70 wt.-% epoxy, 24.6 wt.-% of APP, and 5.4 wt.-% MEL resulted in the highest LOI level of 45 within tested groups for epoxy resin and also for CFRP specimens (LOI level of 39). This mixture also resulted in the lowest average heat release rate (HRR(180s)) of 104 kW·m(-2) and a spec. total heat release (THR(600s)) of 1.14 MJ·m(-2)·g(-1), indicating the importance of balancing spumific and charring agents in intumescent systems and synergy thereof.

Language: en

Keywords

carbon fibers; design of experiments; fire retardation; thermosetting resin