Bioinspired growth of iron derivatives on mesoporous silica: effect on thermal degradation and fire behavior of polystyrene.

Aiming to investigate the influence of pore property of mesoporous material on thermal degradation and fire behavior of polystyrene (PS), the ultrafine iron derivatives were uniformly grown on the interior wall of SBA-15 via the coordination-induced assembly by bioinspired polydopamine (PDA). The resultant SBA-15@PDA@Fe was verified by various characterizations with the dominant component of FeOOH. Compared with PS composites with SBA-15, PS composites with SBA-15@PDA@Fe revealed the notably divergent alteration in thermal and thermal-oxidation degradation behavior, which was determined by the changed pore property. The iron derivatives in SBA-15 mesopores possessed the stronger affinity to aerobic volatiles than anaerobic volatiles (via π-π coordination), which inhibited the release of oxidatively decomposed products and enhanced thermal-oxidation stability. In addition, SBA-15@PDA@Fe was capable to preferentially improve limiting oxygen index, accompanied by the decrease of smoke production through suppressing smoke precursors. The glass transition temperature (T g) of PS/SBA-15 was slightly increased via the bioinspired modification.

Inhibition Effect of Coal Spontaneous Combustion by Composite Inhibitory Foam Based on CaCl2-Melatonin Inhibitor.

Inhibitory foam technology plays an important role in inhibiting coal spontaneous combustion. To enhance the stability and inhibitory performance of inhibitory foam for coal spontaneous combustion, a novel physicochemical composite inhibitor was developed in this work. CaCl2 was chosen as an inorganic salt physical inhibitor to compound with the chemical inhibitor melatonin (MLT) due to its corresponding good foam stability. When the mass ratio of CaCl2 to MLT was 4:1, the lowest CO release concentration of 7337.06 ppm at 200 °C was observed in the composite inhibitor-treated coal. Furthermore, the addition of 20 wt % of the composite inhibitor resulted in a foam half-life of 3067 min, which was 5.89 times longer than that of the water-based foam. In comparison with the water-based foam, the inhibitory foam based on 20 wt % CaCl2-MLT composite inhibitor exhibited more excellent foam stability, wetting ability, and inhibition performance. The release of CO at 200 °C was 7854.6 ppm, showing a reduction of 63.2% compared to the raw coal. Moreover, the composite inhibitory foam could significantly delay the onset of the characteristic temperature and reduce the weight change during the decomposition stage by 12.8%.

Enhanced Potentiometric Hydrogen Sensing Response Based on the Ba0.5Sr0.5Co1-yFeyO3-δ Electrode with Unusual Polarity.

In this work, unusual potentiometric hydrogen sensing of mixed conducting Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ was reported. Inspired by the unusual polarity, a dual sensing electrode (SE) potentiometric hydrogen sensor was fabricated by pairing Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ with electronic conducting ZnO to enhance the hydrogen response. Hydrogen sensing measurements suggested that significantly higher response, larger sensitivity, and lower limit of detection (LOD) were achieved by the dual SE sensor when compared with the single SE sensor based on Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ or ZnO. A high response of 97.3 mV for 500 ppm hydrogen and a low LOD of 2.5 ppm were obtained by the dual SE sensor at 450 °C. Furthermore, the effect of the Fe doping concentration in Ba0.5Sr0.5Co1-yFeyO3-δ (y = 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8) on hydrogen sensing response was investigated. The potentiometric response values to hydrogen increased monotonically with increasing Fe doping concentration. With the Fe/Co atomic ratio increased from 0.25 to 4, the responses to 500 ppm hydrogen raised by 69.6 and 94% at 350 and 450 °C, respectively. The sensing behaviors of unusual Ba0.5Sr0.5Co1-yFeyO3-δ may be ascribed to the predominant surface electrostatic effect. These results show that mixed conducting Ba0.5Sr0.5Co1-yFeyO3-δ is desirable for developing high-performance dual SE hydrogen sensors.

Flame retardancy and wear resistance of epoxy composites modified by whisker-shaped nickel phyllosilicate and microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate.

Whisker-shaped nickel phyllosilicate (NiPS) was synthesized using rod-like nickel-based metal-organic frameworks as the hard templates, and highly efficient flame retardant and wear resistant EP composites were prepared by synergizing with microencapsulated ammonium polyphosphate (MFAPP). The research results indicated that at a total addition amount of 8 wt% and a mass ratio of 2 : 5 for NiPS to MFAPP, the limiting oxygen index of the EP composite was 28.2%, which achieved the V-0 rating in the UL-94 standard. Meanwhile, the peak of heat release rate and total heat release was reduced by 33.9% and 22%, respectively, compared with pure EP. The synergistic system of NiPS and MFAPP promoted the formation of high-quality char layer, preventing the diffusion of heat, oxygen, and combustible gases effectively during combustion of the EP composite. Dry friction test showed that the wear rate of the EP composite was 0.847 × 10-5 mm3 N-1 m-1, which was 87.9% lower than pure EP, indicating a significant improvement in wear resistance. This study provided a promising method for the preparation of high performance epoxy composites with excellent flame retardancy and wear resistance.

Dual-ZIF-derived "reassembling strategy" to hollow MnCoS nanospheres for aqueous asymmetric supercapacitors.

Construction of delicate nanostructures with a facile, mild-condition and economical method is a key issue for building high-performance electrode materials. We demonstrate a facile and novel "reassembling strategy" to hollow MnCoS nanospheres derived from dual-ZIF for supercapacitors. The spherical shell's surface structure, thickness and Mn distribution were controlled by regulating the solvothermal reaction time. The chemical composition, phases, specific surface areas and microstructure were studied and the electrochemical performances were systematically estimated. As the unique low-crystalline and optimized hollow nanosphere structure contributes to increasing active sites, MnCoS nanospheres exhibit excellent electrochemical performance. The test results show that the specific capacitance increases with increasing solvothermal time, and the MCS with a 5 h reaction time exhibits optimal electrochemical properties with a high specific capacity of 957 C g-1 (1 A g-1). Furthermore, an MCS-5//AC asymmetric supercapacitor device delivers a specific energy as high as 36.9 W h kg-1 at a specific power of 750 W kg-1.

A bio-based phosphaphenanthrene-containing derivative modified epoxy thermosets with good flame retardancy, high mechanical properties and transparency.

Phosphorus-containing flame retardants have received huge interest for improving the flame retardant behavior of epoxy resins (EP) over the past few decades. However, a satisfactory flame retardant effect requires high loading of most phosphorus-containing flame retardants, resulting in the deterioration of the thermo-mechanical properties of the flame retardant epoxy materials. To obtain the flame retardant EP with excellent comprehensive properties, a furfurylamine-derived bis-DOPO derivative (FA-bis-DOPO) was synthesized from bio-mass as a co-curing agent for the flame retardant EP. The incorporation of FA-bis-DOPO improved the mechanical strength, the storage modulus and the glass transition temperature of the flame retardant epoxy materials, owing to its stiffness and reactivity with the epoxy matrix to enhance the crosslinking density. The EP material containing 5.0 wt% of FA-bis-DOPO had an LOI of 31.0% and UL-94 V-0 rating, while the pristine EP had an LOI of 23.5% and failed in the UL-94 test, manifesting the high flame retardant efficiency of FA-bis-DOPO. Besides, the cone calorimeter results demonstrated that the PHRR, THR, and TSP values of the EP/FA-bis-DOPO-5.0 were 28.0%, 27.3%, and 9.9% lower than those of the pristine EP, respectively. The flame retardant mechanism of FA-bis-DOPO could be attributed to the combined vapor and condensed phase mechanisms which involved the interruption of the combustion chain reaction by quenching radicals and the inhibition of the transfer of pyrolytic volatile products by catalytic formation of an intact and compact char layer.

Flame Retardant Polypropylene Composites with Low Densities.

Polypropylene (PP) is currently widely used in areas requiring lightweight materials because of its low density. Due to the intrinsic flammability, the application of PP is restricted in many conditions. Aluminum trihydroxide (ATH) is reported as a practical flame retardant for PP, but the addition of ATH often diminishes the lightweight advantage of PP. Therefore, in this work, glass bubbles (GB) and octacedylamine-modified zirconium phosphate (mZrP) are introduced into the PP/ATH composite in order to lower the material density and simultaneously maintain/enhance the flame retardancy. A series of PP composites have been prepared to explore the formulation which can endow the composite with balanced flame retardancy, good mechanical properties, and low density. The morphology, thermal stability, flame retardancy, and mechanical properties of the composites were characterized. The results indicated the addition of GB could reduce the density, but decreased the flame retardancy of PP composites at the same time. To overcome this defect, ATH and mZrP with synergetic effect of flame retardancy were added into the composite. The dosage of each additive was optimized for achieving a balance of flame retardancy, good mechanical properties, and density. With 47 wt % ATH, 10 wt % GB, and 3 wt % mZrP, the peak heat release rate (pHRR) and total smoke production (TSP) of the composite PP-4 were reduced by 91% and 78%, respectively. At the same time, increased impact strength was achieved compared with neat PP and the composite with ATH only. Maintaining the flame retardancy and mechanical properties, the density of composite PP-4 (1.27 g·cm-3) is lower than that with ATH only (PP-1, 1.46 g·cm-3). Through this research, we hope to provide an efficient approach to designing flame retardant polypropylene (PP) composites with low density.