Novel Ti3C2Tx MXene/epoxy intumescent fire‐retardant coatings for ancient wooden architectures

Abstract Most of the ancient buildings are made of inflammable wooden structures, which have serious potential safety hazards. Applying fire‐retardant coating is one of the simplest and most effective means of fire prevention in ancient wooden buildings. In this work, we have demonstrated that the Ti 3 C 2 T x transition metal carbide/carbonitride (MXene) was applied as the synergetic agent, waterborne epoxy resin as the film‐forming agent, ammonium polyphosphate, dipentaerythritol, and melamine (P‐C‐N system) as the intumescent fire‐retardant system to prepare Ti 3 C 2 T x /epoxy intumescent fire‐retardant coating (TEIFC). The results showed that MXene has significantly improved the fire‐retardant performance of the coating. By incorporating 3 wt% Ti 3 C 2 T x (TEIFC‐3, with 62 wt% P‐C‐N system), the coating displayed UL‐94 V‐0 rating with the limiting oxygen index value of 38%. In addition, the combination of Ti 3 C 2 T x and P‐C‐N system enhanced the Shore hardness of the coating to 95 SHD (TEIFC‐3). Furthermore, TEIFC‐3 presented high thermal stability with the T HRI of 177.0°C and T dmax of 380.5°C. This work provides a novel strategy for the design and preparation of intumescent fire‐retardant coating, which will greatly broaden the industrial applications of MXene‐based polymer composites in the field of fire prevention of ancient buildings.