Enhancement of Fire Retardancy in Coir Fibers Using Phosphorylation Treatment

ABSTRACT

Coir fiber has been pretreated using liquid ammonia and further subjected to phosphorylation for enhancing fire retardancy using a mixture of phosphoric acid and phosphorus pentoxide. Enhancement in fire retardancy was observed with reduced water absorption and without inducing any degradative effects on its physical properties. SEM images revealed the surface modifications induced by pretreatment and the surface became more smooth after phosphorylation indicating the adherance of the phosphorylation compounds added, on to the surface. The flammability characteristics, such as reduction in time of burning from 182 to 50 s, no smoke without afterglow when burnt are the major observations. Horizontal flammability tests showed a 66% reduction in burning rate of phosphorylated coir samples. Thus, proving it as an economically viable flame retardant treatment method which suits coir fiber as an efficient substrate for various applications.

摘要

椰壳纤维用液氨预处理，然后用磷酸和五氧化二磷的混合物进行磷酸化以增强阻燃性. 通过降低吸水率和对其物理性能无任何降解作用，观察到阻燃性的增强. SEM图像显示了预处理引起的表面修饰，磷酸化后的表面变得更加光滑，表明磷酸化化合物的加入对表面的粘附性. 燃烧特性，如燃烧时间从182秒缩短到50秒，无烟，燃烧时无余辉是主要观察结果. 水平可燃性试验表明，减少66%的燃烧率磷酸椰壳样品. 从而证明它是一种经济可行的阻燃处理方法，适合椰壳纤维作为各种应用的有效基材.

KEYWORDS:

• Coir fiber
• fire retardancy
• flexural rigidity
• flammability
• breaking stress
• tablet test

关键词::

• 椰壳纤维
• 阻燃性
• 抗弯刚度
• 可燃性
• 断裂应力
• 片剂试验

Acknowledgments

The authors express their sincere gratitude to Chairman, Coir Board and Director, Central Coir Research Institute for the support provided and the laboratory facilities extended. The support provided by Mrs. Sumi Sebastian, Senior Scientific Officer, Central Coir Research Institute is greatly acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.