Study on combustion property and synergistic effect of intumescent flame retardant styrene butadiene rubber with metallic oxides

Effect of metallic oxides on flame retardancy and the thermal stability of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) composites based on ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and pentaerythritol (PER) was studied by the limiting oxygen index (LOI), UL 94, the cone calorimeter tests, and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) were used to analyze the morphological structure and the component of the residue chars formed from the SBR composites accordingly. The addition of zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) at a loading of 3.4 phr could improve the UL 94 test rating of the composite to V-0. The TGA data illustrated that the metallic oxides could enhance the thermal stability of the SBR/Intumescent flame retardant additives (IFRs) composites at high temperature and increase the residue. Cone calorimeter test gave much clear evidence that the incorporation of ZrO2 into SBR/IFRs composites resulted in the significant deduction of the heat release rate (HRR) values, and the SEM images showed that the char layers of the composites containing the metallic oxides became more compact. From the WAXD pattern, zirconium phosphate (ZrP2O7) may be formed by the reaction between ZrO2 and APP. Due to the addition of ZrO2 and the formation of ZrP2O7, the flame retardancy of the composite was improved. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.