Flammability Studies of a Novel Class of Thermoplastic Elastomer Nanocomposites

The thermal insulation properties of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer nanocomposites were characterized at different heat fluxes. Thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer was modified with different loadings of montmorillonite nanoclays and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) via twin screw extrusion processing. The addition of nanoparticle into thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer resulted in the formation of a char layer and modified the thermal insulative properties of the material. It was found that thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer with 10 wt% CNFs and with 5 wt% nanoclays gave the best thermal performance with respect to protecting a substrate. The surface temperature of the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer-clay nanocomposites did not vary much with addition of clay particles while the surface temperature of the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer-CNF nanocomposites varied more substantially. Some of the trends in surface and substrate temperature measurements with nanomodification can be described using a simple energy balance model that takes into account the basic heat transfer mechanisms.

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