Effects of carbon materials on fire protection and smoke suppression of waterborne intumescent coating

The new carbon materials bring significant progress in fire resistance coating and technology, especially carbon nano materials. Aiming to improve the fire resistance, expanded graphite (EG), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), fullerene (C₆₀), graphene (Gr) were applied as filler in the waterborne intumescent coatings to investigate fire resistance, thermal stability, smoke suppression and water resistance. The effects of carbon materials on fire protection and smoke suppression of waterborne intumescent coating were investigated in detail by fire retardant test, thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), smoke density test and water resistance test. The carbon layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and particle size distribution. The results of fire protection test and SEM indicated that the fire resistance of coatings was enhanced by adding 1% content of carbon materials. TGA analysis showed that carbon materials could increase the residual weight and thermal stability of the coatings. After immersed in water for 360 h, the results of water resistance test, the carbon materials could form barrier to improve the water resistance of the coatings. Especially, the graphene exhibited the best performance among all the carbon materials.