Development of an epoxy-based intumescent retardant coatings comprising of different fillers for steel structure

Intumescent coating is one of the useful methods to protect steel structures under fire conditions. In this study, the influence of single and hybrid two or three flame-retardant fillers among TiO2, Al(OH)3, and Mg(OH)2 on paints containing ammonium polyphosphate (APP), melamine (MEL), pentaerythritol (PER) based on the epoxy resin was investigated to improve the fire protection performance of the intumescent coatings. The performances of the intumescent coatings were determined by a fire test at 950oC for 1 hour. The coating degradation was characterized by Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The morphology and composition of the char after the fire test were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS). The results revealed that Al(OH)3 or combination of Al(OH)3 and TiO2 are the effective solution to increase fire protective performances of the epoxy-based intumescent coatings.