Evaluation of Flame Retardants on Wood-Flour/PE Composites

The flame retardancy, thermal degradation, morphological properties, chemical composition of wood flour-plastic composites have been investigated. Ammonium polyphosphate (APP), melamine (MEL) and dipentaerythritol (DPER) were used as intumescent flame retardants. The Limited oxygen index (LOI) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were employed for the study of fire retardance. According to the results obtained from the experiments, the LOI and the char residue of the fire retarded composites increased from 18.1% and 10.1% to 33.9% and 24.2%, respectively. And the thermal stability also became better. From the SEM pictures we visually observed that there are lots bubbles on the surface of the retarded composites not neat composite. FTIR also reflected its chemical composition changing more or less. Overall, ratios of flame retardant monomers had significant impact on fire resistance of wood-flour/PE composites.