Potential Use of Melamine Phytate as a Flame-Retardant Additive in Chicken Feather-Containing Thermoplastic Polyurethane Biocomposites

Abstract

Using waste materials such as chicken feathers (CF) andbiobasedflame-retardant additives including melamine phytate (MPht) has becomean effective approach for environmentally friendly and sustainableproduction in recent years. This study explores the flame retardanteffectiveness of MPht in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-based biocompositescontaining CF. The characterizations of the composites are performedthrough thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), limiting oxygen index(LOI), vertical UL-94 (UL-94 V), and mass loss calorimetry (MLC) tests.According to the test results, the highest UL-94 V rating of V0, aLOI value of 29.4%, and the lowest peak heat release rate (pHRR) (110Kw/m(2)) and total heat evolved (THE) (39 MJ/m(2)) values are obtained with the use of 20 wt % MPht. It is demonstratedthat MPht acts as an effective flame-retardant filler through theformation of intumescent char in the condensed phase and flame dilutionin the gas phase.