Abstract
This study focuses on the improvement of the thermal stability and flame-retardant performance of polyurethane(PU)foam by using effective flame-retardant additives and nano silica(nSiO2)particles from rice husk.The addition of non-halogen flame retardants(FRs)including aluminum trihydroxide(ATH),triphenyl phosphate(TPP),and diammonium phosphate(DAP)leads to markedly enhanced thermal sta-bility and fire resistance of the PU/nSiO2/FRs nanocomposites,resulting in achieving UL-94 HB standard.In particular,the nanocomposites met the UL-94 V-0 criteria thanks to the inclusion of DAP at 25 phr.The LOI value of the nanocomposites reached 26%which is much higher than that of PU/nSiO2 nanocompos-ite,about 20%.In order to further understand the fire-proof mechanism,the residue char layer remaining of the PU/nSiO2/FRs nanocomposites after being burned was also investigated by scanning electron mi-croscopy(SEM)and Fourier transform infrared(FTIR).In addition,the microstructure,thermal stability,thermal conductivity,and mechanical properties of nanocomposites were also evaluated in this study.