Fire Hazard Associated with Polymers and Application of Polymer Nanocomposites for Flame Retardancy

Due to advances in polymer science, their widespread application is found in daily products including vehicles, electronics, clothing, furniture etc. However, most of the items that first ignite in any fire scenario includes mostly polymeric materials according to NFPA reports which clearly elucidates the importance into looking for flame retardancy approach for polymers. Polymer nanocomposites is a relatively new approach undertaken for flame retardancy and has the potential to bring multi-functionality including improved thermal behavior, physical barrier effect, catalytic charring effect and better material performance. The objective of this paper is to initially provide the current state-of-the-art review on polymer nanocomposites in terms of their fire retardancy. The paper describes the hazards associated with burning of polymers, flame retardant mechanism, synthesis and characterization of polymer nanocomposites with focus on thermal analysis. Different kinetic model has been studied and applied for analysis of thermogravimetric analysis data. The kinetic parameters of the polymer degradation have been identified. Primarily polystyrene-silica nanocomposite has been prepared by in-situ method and were characterized for their morphology and thermal behavior using characterization methods, such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Initial results show nanocomposites with promising fire-retardancy properties.