Fully bio-based intumescent flame retardant hybrid: A green strategy towards reducing fire hazard and improving degradation of polylactic acid

Fei Xu; Wenjing Ma; Wenqing Wang; Hanwen Wang; Shijie An; Zhiguo Zhu; Rui Wang

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131985

Fully bio-based intumescent flame retardant hybrid: A green strategy towards reducing fire hazard and improving degradation of polylactic acid

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Apr 30;269(Pt 1):131985. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131985. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Fei Xu¹, Wenjing Ma¹, Wenqing Wang², Hanwen Wang¹, Shijie An¹, Zhiguo Zhu³, Rui Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Materials Design & Engineering Department, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
² Materials Design & Engineering Department, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Clothing Materials R&D and Assessment, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Textile Nanofiber, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China. Electronic address: 20180021@bift.edu.cn.
³ Materials Design & Engineering Department, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Clothing Materials R&D and Assessment, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Textile Nanofiber, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China. Electronic address: clyzzg@bift.edu.cn.
⁴ Materials Design & Engineering Department, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Clothing Materials R&D and Assessment, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Textile Nanofiber, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China.

PMID: 38692538
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131985

Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a promising renewable polymer material with excellent biodegradability and good mechanical properties. However, the easy flammability and slow natural degradation limited its further applications, especially in high-security fields. In this work, a fully bio-based intumescent flame-retardant system was designed to reduce the fire hazard of PLA. Firstly, arginine (Arg) and phytic acid (PA) were combined through electrostatic ionic interaction, followed by the introduction of starch as a carbon source, namely APS. The UL-94 grade of PLA/APS composites reached V-0 grade by adding 3 wt% of APS and exhibited excellent anti-dripping performance. With APS addition increasing to 7 wt%, LOI value increased to 26 % and total heat release decreased from 58.4 (neat PLA) to 51.1 MJ/m². Moreover, the addition of APS increased its crystallinity up to 83.5 % and maintained the mechanical strength of pristine PLA. Noteworthy, APS accelerated the degradation rate of PLA under submerged conditions. Compared with pristine PLA, PLA/APS showed more apparent destructive network morphology and higher mass and M_n loss, suggesting effective degradation promotion. This work provides a full biomass modification strategy to construct renewable plastic with both good flame retardancy and high degradation efficiency.

Keywords: Anti droplet; Biomolecule; Degradation; Flame retardancy; Polylactic acid (PLA).