Lignosulfonates as Fire Retardants in Wood Flour-Based Particleboards

• Published in: International Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 2019; no. 2019; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Malinconico, Mario, Savy, Davide, Garcia-Jaca, Javier, Scarinzi, Gennaro, Cerruti, Pierfrancesco, Barrio, Aitor, Angelini, Stefania, Piccolo, Alessandro
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Cairo, Egypt Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2019; Hindawi; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Hindawi Limited; Wiley
• Subjects: Additives; Agriculture & agronomie; Agriculture & agronomy; Aqueous solutions; Biomass; Calorimetry; Cellulose; Char formation; Chemicals; Dialysis; Fireproofing agents; Flame retardants; Flammability; Flour; Formaldehyde; Heat release rate; Hemodialysis; Life sciences; Lignin; Lignocellulose; Lignosulfonates; Paper industry; Polymers; Pulp & paper mills; Sciences du vivant; Wood composites
• ISSN: 1687-9422; 1687-9430; 1687-9430
• DOI: 10.1155/2019/6178163

Wood flour particleboards (WFP), like other wood-based items, require the addition of fire retardants (FRs) to reduce their high flammability. In this work, a waste lignosulfonate (CaLS) from paper mill is used as a low-cost FR to reduce WFP flammability. CaLS is purified by dialysis and the dialysed lignosulfonate (LD) is used, alone or combined with ammonium polyphosphate (APP), as a FR additive in the preparation of urea-formaldehyde WFP. The fire behaviour of the modified WFPs is studied by cone calorimetry. The use of 15 wt.% LD reduces the peak of heat release rate (HRR) and total smoke production by 25%, also increasing char formation. HRR peak is further reduced up to 40%, if APP is introduced in the formulation. This work discloses a viable and cost-effective strategy for improving the fire retardancy performance of WFP by partial replacement of a commercial FR with a fully renewable additive, isolated through a green and cost-effective process.