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How Carbon Nanotube Crushing can Improve Flame Retardant Behaviour in Polymer Nanocomposites?
Author(s) -
Peeterbroeck Sophie,
Laoutid Fouad,
Swoboda Benjamin,
LopezCuesta JoséMarie,
Moreau Nicolas,
Nagy Janos B.,
Alexandre Michaël,
Dubois Philippe
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200600614
Subject(s) - fire retardant , materials science , carbon nanotube , flammability , nanocomposite , vinyl acetate , composite material , polymer , ethylene vinyl acetate , nanotube , combustion , copolymer , thermal stability , cone calorimeter , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , char , chemistry , engineering
Nanocomposites based on an ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer (27 wt.‐% vinyl acetate) and multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have been prepared by melt blending and their thermal degradation and flame retardant properties have been evaluated. Special attention has been paid to the influence of the nanotube nature on the flammability properties and more particularly on the time to ignition (TTI) as measured by cone calorimetry. It has been shown that there is a strong influence of the nature of carbon nanotubes on the fire behaviour of the composites, especially previous MWNTs crushing proved to substantially delay the TTI while maintaining much reduced heat release rate (HRR). Such a remarkable behaviour might be explained by the chemical reactivity of radical species present at the surface/extremities of crushed MWNTs during the combustion process.