Effect of starch-based flame retardant on the thermal degradation and combustion properties of reconstituted tobacco sheet

In this paper, starch, distarch phosphate (DSP) and hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate (HPDSP) were used as “green” carbon sources with ammonium polyphosphate (APP) to prepare flame retardant reconstituted tobacco sheet (RTS) by paper-making process and the effect of these starch-based flame retardants on their thermal degradation and combustion properties was preliminarily investigated. Micro-scale combustion calorimetry results showed the value of the heat release of modified RTS was lower than that of pure RTS, demonstrating the restrained combustion behavior of modified RTS. TG-FTIR and TG-MS analysis indicated that the starch-based flame retardant coating promoted the char formation, inhibited char combustion and release of gaseous products except for NH3, with the relative best comprehensive performance of APP-DSP. Cigarette burning cone analysis also confirmed that the modified RTS had lower temperature and smaller burning cone volume than that of pure RTS, especially APP-HPDSP-RTS. This work could highly expand the application of starch and its derivatives in flame retardant and tobacco industry.