Fouad LAOUTID^1,*, Valeriia KARASEVA¹, Lucie COSTES^{1, 2}, Sylvain BROHEZ², Rosica MINCHEVA¹, Philippe DUBOIS¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.6, pp. 559-572, 2018, DOI:10.32604/JRM.2018.00004

Abstract In this study, tannic acid (TA) was investigated as flame retardant agent for PLA. Different strategies to modify its thermal degradation pathway have been explored in order to improve its charring effect. The first one consists in combining TA with organomodified montmorillonite (oMMT), and enables limiting the thermo-oxidative degradation of TA and promoting the formation of an effective char layer. Flame-retardant (FR) behavior of PLA-based composition has been found to be positively impacted by this combination since a reduction of the peak of Heat Release Rate (PHRR), more important than the value recorded when oMMT More >

Mfiso Emmanuel Mngomezulu¹, Adriaan Stephanus Luyt², Steve Anthony Chapple³, Maya Jacob John^3,4*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.1, pp. 26-37, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634140

Abstract This work reports on the effect of commercial expandable graphite (EG) on the flammability and thermal decomposition properties of PLA-starch blend. The PLA-starch/EG composites were prepared by melt-mixing and their thermal stability, volatile pyrolysis products and flammability characteristics were investigated. The char residues of the composites, after combustion in a cone calorimeter, were analyzed with environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). The thermal decomposition stability of the composites improved in the presence of EG. However, the char content was less than expected as per the combination of the wt% EG added into PLA-starch and the %… More >