High-performance flame-retardant polycarbonate composites: Mechanisms investigation and fire-safety evaluation systems establishment

Polycarbonate (PC) is highly attractive for applications in high-speed railways and airplanes as engineering materials, but suffers from high fire hazards with severe melting dripping during burning. To overcome the challenge, highly effective flame retardants, such as sulfonate derivatives and silicon-based compounds have been developed. Unfortunately, there is still lacking of a systematic method to evaluate the fire risk of these flame-retardant PC composites. Herein, we propose a comprehensive and innovative approach to assess the fire safety of flame-retardant PC composites containing potassium perfluorobutane sulfonate (PPFBS) and a silicon-based flame retardant (PSR) through combining numerous combustion parameters obtained from different measurements. The pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of PC/PPFBS and PC/PSR were studied in detail and revealed that PPFBS and PSR could effectively reduce the activation energy of PC. PSR is effective at reducing the heat and smoke release due to the formation of a Si–C protective layer during combustion. In contrast, PPFBS has no obvious suppression effect on smoke generation, and even shows a combustion-supporting effect under high radiation flux. Based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a comprehensive evaluation model has been established to achieve an objective and comprehensive evaluation of the fire hazards of PC and its composites. This works provides a universal guidance for evaluating fire hazards of flame-retardant polymer composite.