Polyurethanes are known to be the largest fuel loads which can easily ignite and once it ignites, lead to flashover, burning at fast rates. In the presence of fire these foams have a tendency to drip and flow as they burn. Commercially available fire retardants for polyurethane foams are in need of replacement due to negative environmental impact, especially chlorinated and brominated compounds. The purpose of this project was to study the existing commercially available flame retardants, as well as to synthesize new non-halogenated flame retardants for polyurethane foams which utilize char formation as the primary mechanism of flame retardancy.
The new phosphorous and boron based flame retardants were tested for heat release with a micro combustion calorimeter (ASTM D7309). The results showed that the addition of boronic acids greatly lowered the heat release, due to condensed (char formation) phase mechanism. The new FR’s were also solvent blended in Texin 990R (mimic for polyurethane foam) and tested for heat release and the results indicated that the boronic acids showed significant reduction in flammability.