Sustainable and flame-retardant wood coating
Developing sustainable, high-performance, and flame-retardant wood coatings is significantly important for effective utilisation of wood. In a recent work, a bio-based flame-retardant curing agent of ammonium hydrogen phytate (AHP) was synthesised by controlling the reaction molar ratio of phytic acid and urea. This synthetic AHP displayed appropriate pH which is beneficial for curing melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin aqueous solution. The curing rate could be freely adjusted by changing the weight ratio of AHP to MUF.
Great potential
Compared to the control sample of wood coating prepared by the commercial curing agent of ammonium chloride, except the greatly improved thermal stability and flame retardancy, the resultant wood coating (MP) exhibited comparable Tg, hardness, adhesion, and water resistance.
According to the researchers, their research presents a sustainable, eco-friendly approach to construct a high-performance, flame-retardant wood coating, which has great potential in the wood and furniture industries.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 162, January 2022.