Cone calorimetry studies of fire retardant soybean-oil-based copolymers containing silicon or boron: Comparison of additive and reactive approaches

The fire retardance and thermal stability of soybean-based copolymers reactively modified by copolymerization with trimethylsilylstyrene (SiST) and tris-(4-vinylphenylboroxine) (BST) have been compared with those prepared with equivalent amounts of the additive 1,3-diphenyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (SiAD) and tris-(phenylboroxine) (BAD) and with the heteroatom-free soybean-based copolymers. The best results are obtained for the boron-containing copolymers. The reactive or additive approach is a significant factor in terms of the level of fire retardance achieved.