- Author
-
Gilman, J. W.
|
Ritchie, S. J.
|
Kashiwagi, T.
|
Lomakin, S. M.
- Title
- Fire Retardant Additives for Polymeric Materials. Part 1. Char Formation From Silica Gel-Potassium Carbonate.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
- Journal
-
Fire and Materials,
Vol. 21,
No. 1,
23-32,
1997
- Report
-
NISTIR 6030
June 1997
- Book or Conf
- U.S./Japan Government Cooperative Program on Natural Resources (UJNR). Fire Research and Safety. 13th Joint Panel Meeting. Volume 2. March 13-20, 1996,
Gaithersburg, MD,
Beall, K. A., Editors,
261-270 p.,
1997
- Keywords
-
fire safety
|
fire research
|
fire retardants
|
additives
|
char formation
|
polymers
|
silica gel
|
cone calorimeters
|
thermoplastics
|
oxygen index
|
gasification
- Abstract
- Silica gel combined with potassium carbonate is an effective fire retardant for a wide vareity of common polymers (at only 10 wt. % total additive) such as polypropylene, nylon, polymethyl methacrylate, poly(vinyl alcohol), cellulose, and to a lesser extent polystyrene and styrene-acrylonitrile. The peak heat release rate is reduced by up to 68% without significantly increasing the smoke or carbon monoxide levels during the combustion.