Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials II- Bio-Inspired and Environmentally-Benign Formulations and Methods
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 40970
Special Issue Editors
Interests: chain-growth polymers; combustion; thermal decomposition; flammability; fire retardants; ligno-cellulosic materials; waste recycling and management; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: polymer synthesis; environmentally sustainable flame retardant materials; cellulosic combustion and bush fires; waste recycling/management; adaptation of the existing processes/strategies towards more effective means of combustion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Following on from the success of the recent Special Issue of Polymers, “Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials”, we are delighted to launch the second part, entitled as, “Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials II—Bio-Inspired and Environmentally-Benign Formulations and Methods”.
The use of fire retardants (FRs) to passively protect solid substrates, including polymeric ones, can be perhaps traced back to the use of their kind first published by Gay-Lussac in 1821 (L. Gay Lussac, Annales de chime, 18(2), (1821) 211). The earlier uses of FRs were mostly aimed at protecting naturally ocurring materials and their derivatives, such as ligno-cellulosics and polymeric components based on polyamides, the latter being mostly of an animal origin. With the emergence of synthetic plastic materials during the turn of the 20th century and their extended use in almost every walks of daily life , such as in dwellings, public places and transportation, brought with it a formidable challenge of their safer use, primarily emanating from their higher flammability and associated hazards.
In spite of the inherent flammability attributes of, and fire hazards associated with, synthetic polymers, their uses and demands are on the increase. This is primarily due to their ease of production and low cost, light weight, good processability, enhanced weatherability, etc., as opposed to the conventional natural counterparts. One of the main reasons behind the successful use of polymeric-based materials in every-day-life is that, over the past decades, effective means and methods of adequately fire proofing these materials have been also brought in place. However, in an ardent quest to achieve sufficient levels of flame reatrdancy of polymeric materials and components, predominantly synthetic thermoplastics, even the use (or perhaps the misuse!) of certain heavy metal oxides in combination with halogenated moieties became common place. Without much delay, such a practice was severly criticized by the scientific community, and was also concomitantly restricted through legistlative measures. The shift from these toxic formulations to more environmentally-friendly formulations that are based either on metal hydroxides/carbonates, or on phosphorus-containing compounds, or on more recently discovered non-reactive inorganic nano-materials, etc., did not completely eliminate the undesirable side effects like their environmental toxicity and ensuing longer term problems. Naturally, the turn of the century witnessed an upsurge of a huge interest in bio-derived and environmentally-friendly FRs and associated methodologies for fire proofing polymeric materials.
This Special Issue, “Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials II- Bio-inspired and environmentally-benign formulations and methods”, predominantly focusses on the recent developments in this area, and the main topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Sustainable technologies and bio-inspired fire retardants
- Novel fire retarded polymeric materials derived from natural resources
- Modification/conversion of agricultural products and wastes to serve as FRs
- Multicomponent systems incorporating conventional FRs and bio-derived products
- Additive/reactive strategies pertaining to bio-inspired FRs
- Polymeric hybrid materials and nanocomposites that incorporate natural fibrous materials
- Elements of mechanisms of fire retardant action
- Elucidation of condensed- and gaseous-phase chemistries
- Analytcal correlations of test data at different scales
- Mathematical modelling and software simulation of fire behaviour of the modified systems
Whilst original contributions are normally expected, relevant reviews on topical issues in the general subject area are also welcome.
Dr. Svetlana Tretsiakova-McNally
Dr. Paul Joseph
Guest Editors
Keywords
- Bio-inspired fire retardant materials and formulations
- Fire retardant coatings, fibres and composites sourced from natural resources
- Thermal degradation/decomposition and combustion of polymers
- Calorimetric evaluations
- Structural and morphological features of materials
- Mechanisms of flame retardation
- Characterisation techniques
- Correlations of empirical parameters
- Mathematical modelling and computational simulations
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