Evaluation of flammability for bamboo products treated with water-soluble flame retardants

ABSTRACT

The widespread utilization of bamboo in the field of building and construction has sparked growing interests in conducting research on fire performance of bamboo. This study investigated fire performance of bamboo treated with flame retardants that possess water-soluble and environmental friendly characteristics. The synergistic effect of APP and P-N-B complexed flame retardant on flame resistance were evaluated, while absorption capacity and moisture absorption rate were also evaluated in relation to impregnation duration and solution concentration. The results indicated that absorption capacity increased with impregnation duration and solution concentration. It was observed solution concentration had a significant impact on moisture absorption for both APP and P-N-B complexed series. The ideal impregnation duration and solution concentration were found to be 6 h and 30%, respectively. Both APP and P-N-B complexed series significantly improved the fire performance of bamboo, but the latter exhibited a superior effect due to its synergistic combination of P, N and B. The FPIs of APP and P-N-B complexed series increased by factors of 2.4 and 4.1 compared to the untreated one. Both facilitated the formation of stable char layers and exerted their influence in gaseous phase through release of non-combustible gas for fuel dilution and free radicals mitigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Absorption capacity
• moisture absorption
• flame resistance mechanism
• synergistic effect

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Technological Innovation Fund of Hunan Forestry Department (No.XLKY202217), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.32271969), Inclusive Policies and Innovative Environment Construction project (No. 2021GK5073).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Technological Innovation Fund of Hunan Forestry Department [grant number XLKY202217]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant No. 32271969]; Inclusive Policies and Innovative Environment Construction project [grant number 2021GK5073].