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Water resistance, flame retardancy, and thermal properties of hydrophobic polypropylene/bamboo fiber composites

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Abstract

Melamine–formaldehyde resin-coated bamboo fiber (MFBF) and ammonium polyphosphate (MFAPP) were prepared, and then flame-retardant polypropylene (PP)/bamboo fiber composites based on MFBF/MFAPP were obtained by melt blending. The water resistance, flame retardant, and thermal properties of the composites were studied. The results show that MFBF and MFAPP have excellent water resistance with the water contact angles 130.85° and 119.78°, respectively. Compared with pure PP, the limit oxygen index (LOI) of the prepared composite increased from 18.5 to 25.5% with the UL-94V-0 rating. The peak heat release rate of the composite decreased from 1011.8 to 344.3 kW·m−2 and the total heat release decreased from 100.6 to 58.8 MJ·m−2. Meanwhile, the total smoke release decreased from 1453.3 to 922.0 m2·m−2. After soaking in 70 °C water for 36 h, the composite still reached the V-0 rating in UL-94 test, demonstrating a good water resistance. This work provides an effective method to improve the water resistance and flame retardancy of PP/bamboo fiber composites.

Graphical abstract

Melamine–formaldehyde resin-coated bamboo fibers (MFBF) and ammonium polyphosphate (MFAPP) were prepared, then flame-retardant PP/BF composites were obtained based on MFBF/MFAPP. The results show that prepared composite exhibited excellent water resistance and flame-retardant properties.

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Acknowledgements

The authors deeply appreciate the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (1908085J20, 2008085QE269), the Key research and development project in Anhui Province (Grant No. 2022i01020016), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51775001), the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province (GXXT-2020-057, GXXT-2019-027, GXXT-2020-079), Natural Science Research Project of Universities in Anhui Province (KJ2020A0326).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Safety Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, Anhui, China

    Shi-bin Nie, Cheng-ye Fang, Yu-xuan Xu, Xiang Dong, Fan-bei Kong & Chao Han

  2. School of Material Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, Anhui, China

    Ji-nian Yang

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  1. Shi-bin Nie
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Contributions

Cheng-ye Fang contributed to experiment, data curation, investigation, visualization, and writing-original draft; Shi-bin Nie contributed to conceptualization, methodology, writing–review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition; Yu-xuan Xu contributed to writing–review and editing, validation, and formal analysis; Ji-nian Yang contributed to validation and formal analysis; Xiang Dong contributed to data curation and writing–review; Fan-bei Kong and Chao Han contributed to data curation.

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Correspondence to Shi-bin Nie or Yu-xuan Xu.

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Nie, Sb., Fang, Cy., Xu, Yx. et al. Water resistance, flame retardancy, and thermal properties of hydrophobic polypropylene/bamboo fiber composites. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 12547–12559 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11491-5

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