Flame retardancy of nanocomposites

Nishizawa Technical Institute (NTI) and Kyoto Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed EVA-clay nanocornposites with excellent mechanical and flame retardant properties by a reactive process and have succeeded in a novel method to synthesize an aluminium hydroxide nanoparticle, which has the effect of improving the flame retardancy of nanocomposites with EVA. About the EVA-clay nanocomposites, the peak heat release rate (HRR) of sample MM2 (EVA-clay partially processed nanocornposites) and sample MM3 (EVA-clay completely processed nanocomposites) was reduced from 1/3 (one third) to 1/4 (one fourth) compared with EVA only. Sample AL-1 (EVA-aluminium nanocomposites) showed a more effective reduction of HRR than sample AL-2 (EVA-normal aluminium hydroxide). Beside these experiments, the orientation of the nanofiller MMT (montinorillonite) by a 2-axis extruder equipped a special novel kneading roll head and the flame retardancy of silica nanocomposite coating materials (Sol-Gel process) is discussed. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.