- Author
- Zanetti, M. | Kashiwagi, T. | Falqui, L. | Camino, G.
- Title
- Cone Calorimeter Combustion and Gasification Studies of Polymer Layered Silicate Nanocomposites.
- Coporate
- Università di Torino, Via Pietro Giuria 7, 10125 Turin, Italy National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD IMAG-CNR, Via De Marini 6, 16149 Genova, Italy
- Journal
- Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 14, No. 2, 881-887, February 2002
- Keywords
- nanocomposites | cone calorimeters | combustion | gasification | experiments | heat flux | x ray diffraction
- Identifiers
- ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA); Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM); combustion and thermal gasification studies; organoclay composites; data recorded in cone calorimeter experiments at a heat flux of 50 kW/m2
- Abstract
- Polymer composites based on organically modified phyllosilicates (organoclay) and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) were prepared by melt processing to study their combustion behavior. Their degrees of dispersion and intercalation spacings as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were typical of either a microcomposite or an exfoliated nanocomposite, depending on the type of organoclay. Combustion experiments showed that the microcomposite burns in the same way as pure EVA, whereas the heat release is reduced by 70-80% when nanocomposites with low silicate loadings (2-5%) are burned, because a protective charred ceramic surface layer is formed as a result of reassembly of the clay layers and catalyzed charring of the polymer. A chemical mechanism for this charring is proposed.