Effects of inorganic fillers on the shear viscosity and fire retardant performance of waterborne intumescent coatings

In the present work, the effects of inorganic fillers on the fire retardant performance of waterborne intumescent coatings are investigated by thermogravimetry (TG), capillary rheometer, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) and fire retardant test, etc. The TG results indicate that the thermal stability of vinyl acetate-vinyl ester of versatic acid copolymer (hereafter VAc-VeoVa) in VAc-VeoVa/Si–Al powder composite or in VAc-VeoVa/Halloysite nanometer-tube (HNTs) composite is improved mainly due to the release of the crystal water in Si–Al powder or HNTs. Capillary rheometer analysis results demonstrate that the VAc-VeoVa/HNTs composite melt possesses the highest shear viscosity, because of the large specific surface area of HNTs and the strong interaction force between HNTs and VAc-VeoVa. Weight loss difference (ΔT) of filler/ammonium polyphosphate (APP) composites show antagonism effects at 300 °C < T < 650 °C and synergistic effects at T > 650 °C. The fire retardant test results show the coatings using TiO2/Si–Al powder/HNTs (8/1/1) as multiple fillers obtains an intumescent char layer with intumescent ratio of 28.14 and presents excellent fire retardant performance (3327 s). It is found that the high melt viscosity, resulted from the effect of inorganic filler, immobilizes the relaxation and rotation of polymer chain, restricts the intumescent behavior of the coatings, which leads to the formation of an intumescent char layer with lower intumescent ratio and the shortening of the fire retardant time. Moreover, the antagonism effect between filler and APP reduces the catalytic dehydration efficiency of pentaerythritol (PER) and VAc-VeoVa, which, as a result, also affects the final fire retardant performance of coatings.

► The effects of clay on the thermal stability of polymer are by physical method.
► The viscosity of VAc-VeoVa/filler melt influences the intumescent ratio of coatings.
► VAc-VeoVa/filler melt with highly viscosity leads to form lower intumescent char.
► APP/filler(ΔT) shows a negative effect at 300–650 °C and a positive effect at T > 650 °C.
► For intumescent coatings, multi-fillers are better than single filler.