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Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations

The addition of toxic flame retardants to commercially available polymers is often required for safety reasons due to the high flammability of these materials. In this work, the preparation and incorporation of efficient biodegradable starch-based flame retardants into a low-density polyethylene (LD...

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Autores principales: Carvalho, Bárbara O., Gonçalves, Luís P. C., Mendonça, Patrícia V., Pereira, João P., Serra, Arménio C., Coelho, Jorge F. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10610673/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37896321
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15204078
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author Carvalho, Bárbara O.
Gonçalves, Luís P. C.
Mendonça, Patrícia V.
Pereira, João P.
Serra, Arménio C.
Coelho, Jorge F. J.
author_facet Carvalho, Bárbara O.
Gonçalves, Luís P. C.
Mendonça, Patrícia V.
Pereira, João P.
Serra, Arménio C.
Coelho, Jorge F. J.
author_sort Carvalho, Bárbara O.
collection PubMed
description The addition of toxic flame retardants to commercially available polymers is often required for safety reasons due to the high flammability of these materials. In this work, the preparation and incorporation of efficient biodegradable starch-based flame retardants into a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) matrix was investigated. Thermoplastic starch was first obtained by plasticizing starch with glycerol/water or glycerol/water/choline phytate to obtain TPS-G and TPS-G-CPA, respectively. Various LDPE/TPS blends were prepared by means of melt blending using polyethylene graft maleic anhydride as a compatibilizer and by varying the content of TPS and a halogenated commercial flame retardant. By replacing 38% and 76% of the harmful commercial flame retardant with safe TPS-G-CPA and TPS-G, respectively, blends with promising fire behavior were obtained, while the limiting oxygen index (LOI ≈ 28%) remained the same. The presence of choline phytate improved both the charring ability and fire retardancy of starch and resulted in a 43% reduction in fire growth index compared to the blend with commercial flame retardant only, as confirmed by means of cone calorimetry. Standard UL 94 vertical tests showed that blends containing TPS exhibited dripping behavior (rated V2), while those with commercial flame retardant were rated V0. Overall, this work demonstrates the potential of starch as a natural flame retardant that could reduce the cost and increase the safety of polymer-based materials.
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spelling pubmed-106106732023-10-28 Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations Carvalho, Bárbara O. Gonçalves, Luís P. C. Mendonça, Patrícia V. Pereira, João P. Serra, Arménio C. Coelho, Jorge F. J. Polymers (Basel) Article The addition of toxic flame retardants to commercially available polymers is often required for safety reasons due to the high flammability of these materials. In this work, the preparation and incorporation of efficient biodegradable starch-based flame retardants into a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) matrix was investigated. Thermoplastic starch was first obtained by plasticizing starch with glycerol/water or glycerol/water/choline phytate to obtain TPS-G and TPS-G-CPA, respectively. Various LDPE/TPS blends were prepared by means of melt blending using polyethylene graft maleic anhydride as a compatibilizer and by varying the content of TPS and a halogenated commercial flame retardant. By replacing 38% and 76% of the harmful commercial flame retardant with safe TPS-G-CPA and TPS-G, respectively, blends with promising fire behavior were obtained, while the limiting oxygen index (LOI ≈ 28%) remained the same. The presence of choline phytate improved both the charring ability and fire retardancy of starch and resulted in a 43% reduction in fire growth index compared to the blend with commercial flame retardant only, as confirmed by means of cone calorimetry. Standard UL 94 vertical tests showed that blends containing TPS exhibited dripping behavior (rated V2), while those with commercial flame retardant were rated V0. Overall, this work demonstrates the potential of starch as a natural flame retardant that could reduce the cost and increase the safety of polymer-based materials. MDPI 2023-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10610673/ /pubmed/37896321 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15204078 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Carvalho, Bárbara O.
Gonçalves, Luís P. C.
Mendonça, Patrícia V.
Pereira, João P.
Serra, Arménio C.
Coelho, Jorge F. J.
Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations
title Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations
title_full Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations
title_fullStr Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations
title_full_unstemmed Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations
title_short Replacing Harmful Flame Retardants with Biodegradable Starch-Based Materials in Polyethylene Formulations
title_sort replacing harmful flame retardants with biodegradable starch-based materials in polyethylene formulations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10610673/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37896321
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15204078
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