A facile approach for synthesising and studying (chitosan-g-poly vinyl alcohol)/bio-CaCO 3 fire retardant bionanocomposites

We describe a facile approach for the preparation and characterization of a chitosan (CS) based fire safety bionanocomposite via emulsifier-free emulsion polymerisation. The resulting nanostructure as well as molecular interactions in the (chitosan-g-poly vinyl alcohol)/ bio-CaCO 3 ((CS-g-PVA)/ bio-CaCO 3 ) bionanocomposites (BNCs) are successfully characterised from FTIR, XRD and TEM analysis. TGA results revealed that CS based BNC possessed improved thermal stability with high char yield. Cone calorimetry revealed that CSB12 BNC suppressed fire hazards in the terms of reduced PHRR by 44.96%, THR by 32.54% relative to neat CS-g-PVA. After fire retardant test char residues of BNCs are collected and surface morphology as well as elemental content for the same analysed by FESEM and EDX. Compared to CS-g-PVA oxygen barrier property of 12% w/v bio-CaCO 3 loaded BNC is decreased by 73.93%. However, bio-CaCO 3 incorporation in BNCs also contributes to significant increase of Young’s modulus and tensile strength. This work supplies new strategies for the formulation of environmental friendly fire retardant system. Graphic abstract