Premium
Comparative study on the effects of silica size and dispersion mode on the fire retardancy of extruded wood fiber/ HDPE composites
Author(s) -
Zhou Haiyang,
Hao Xiaolong,
Wang Xiaoyu,
Liu Tao,
Sun Lichao,
Yi Xin,
Wang Qingwen,
Ou Rongxian
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.25763
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , high density polyethylene , dispersion (optics) , thermal stability , polyethylene , fiber , chemical engineering , physics , optics , engineering
The inflammability of wood fiber/high‐density polyethylene composites (WPCs/HDPE) remains a limitation for its application. Here the authors sought to improve the flame retardancy of WPCs by incorporating uniformly dispersed SiO 2 . Specifically, micron‐ and nano‐SiO 2 were incorporated into HDPE via dry blending (dry dispersion) or solution blending (wet dispersion), to prepare the compounded matrices for the WPCs. The effects of SiO 2 size and dispersion mode on the thermal stability and fire retardancy of WPCs were investigated. The results indicated that the nano‐SiO 2 was more beneficial to improve the thermal stability of WPCs than the micron‐SiO 2 , especially incorporating via wet dispersion. The cone calorimetry tests revealed that incorporating 9 wt% micron‐SiO 2 slightly decreased the heat release and smoke production of the WPCs. The incorporation of nano‐SiO 2 in WPCs showed a moderate reduction in the heat release, while slightly increased the smoke production. The wet dispersion presented minor advantage over dry dispersion in improving the flame retardancy of WPCs. In addition, the dynamic thermal‐mechanical analysis revealed that the WPCs containing wet‐dispersed micron‐ or nano‐SiO 2 exhibited a higher storage modulus compared to that dry‐dispersed SiO 2 .