- Author
-
Kashiwagi, T.
|
Du, F.
|
Douglas, J. F.
|
Winey, K. I.
|
Harris, R. H., Jr.
|
Shields, J. R.
- Title
- Nanoparticle Networks Reduce the Flammability of Polymer Nanocomposites.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Pennsylvania Univ., Philadelphia
- Journal
-
Nature Materials,
Vol. 4,
No. 12,
928-933,
December 2005
- Keywords
-
nanocomposites
|
flammability
|
polymers
|
nanoparticles
|
flame retardants
|
regulations
|
flame retardant additives
|
fillers
|
polymethyl methacrylate
|
mass loss
- Identifiers
- synthetic polymeric materials; natural polymeric materials; selected sequences of sample behaviour during gasification and the collected residues; effects of the nanoparticle type on mass loss rate; effects of the nanoparticle type and concentration on the viscoelastic measurements; effects of the nanoparticle type and concentration on mass loss rate and the configuration of the residues; relationships between normalized peak mass loss rate and normalized concentration of nanoparticles; effects of Mw of PMMA on mass loss rate
- Abstract
- Synthetic polymeric materials are rapidly replacing more traditional inorganic materials, such as metals, and natural polymeric materials, such as wood. As these synthetic materials are flammable, they require modifications to decrease their flammability through the addition of flame-retardant compounds. Environmental regulation has restricted the use of some halogenated flame-retardant additives, initiating a search for alternative flame-retardant additives. Nanoparticle fillers are highly attractive for this purpose, because they can simultaneously improve both the physical and flammability properties of the polymer nanocomposite. We show that carbon nanotubes can surpass nanoclays as effective flame-retardant additives if they form a jammed network structure in the polymer matrix, such that the material as a whole behaves rheologically like a gel. We find this kind of network formation for a variety of highly extended carbon-based nanoparticles: single- and multiwalled nanotubes, as well as carbon nanofibres.