Optimisation of the effect of colemanite as a new synergistic agent in an intumescent system

An intumescent system including ammonium polyphosphate (APP) as an acid source and blowing agent, pentaerythritol (PER) as a carbonific agent and colemanite as a synergistic agent is used to enhance flame retardancy of polypropylene (FR-PP). In order to investigate the synergism between colemanite and the flame retardant materials (APP and PER), D-optimal mixture design was employed. The limiting oxygen index (LOI) and amount of residue (AoR) were accepted as response 1 and response 2, respectively. Applying D-optimal strategy, 18 experiments were performed. Filler content was fixed at 30 wt% of total amounts of flame retardant PP composites. Constraints were determined according to the ratio of APP/PER ranging between 1 and 3. Statistical analysis of the cubic model revealed that lack of fit (LoF) was not significant for the cubic and linear model for both responses. The model suggested an optimum composite formulation with concentration levels 65% of APP, 28% of PER and 7% of colemanite that gives an LOI of 40.3. The experimental LOI and AoR of optimum formulation were achieved as 39.3 and 21.4 with 2.5% and 2.2% errors, respectively.