WO2011091806A1

WO2011091806A1 - Flame retardant and termite fighting composition and articles coated therewith

Info

Publication number: WO2011091806A1
Application number: PCT/EG2010/000003
Authority: WO
Inventors: El Sayed Kamel Morsy Elbaialy
Original assignee: El Sayed Kamel Morsy Elbaialy
Priority date: 2010-01-27
Filing date: 2010-01-27
Publication date: 2011-08-04

Abstract

Non-toxic environmentally friendly, healthily safe, fire retardant composition is disclosed for specific use as prevention against fire. Applications of the fire retardant include, but are not limited to, uses as coat for wood articles, textiles, metals, electrical cables, leather, plastic, fabrics,..etc. Methods for using the fire retardant and termite fighting compositions of the invention are also provided. The composition comprises Arabic gum, phosphoric acid, diethahnol amine, urea, glucose, mono ammonium phosphate, and water. The product of the invention is completely natural, non-toxic and eco-friendly. The inventive compositions also optionally comprise additional ingredients, and are therefore suitable for a wide variety of home and industrial purposes.

Description

Flame Retardant and Termite Fighting

Composition and Articles Coated Therewith

TECHNICL FIELD:

This present invention relates to flame retardant composition and more particularly to an environmentally friendly, non-toxic aqueous flame retardant composition for specific use against fire. Also the invention is directed to a composition containing a Arabic gum, diethanolamine, phosphoric acid. Also the composition could be modified to be used as flame-retardant and termite fighting in the same time.

BACKGROUND ART:

Fireproofmg agents which are intended for brushing onto, or impregnation of combustible materials, such as wood, cellulose fiberboard, paper, cardboard or the like, or of non-combustible materials, such as metal, plaster or the like, and which exert a protective action at the temperature of the flames, have long been known. It is also known to use, for this purpose, mixtures which consist of resins, starch or glue and foam-forming materials, such as phosphate salts, boric acid or the like. Mixtures of the latter type which contain from 50 to 80% of foam- forming substances, for example ammonium phosphate, from 10 to 50% of a urea-formaldehyde resin, in which, when forming the resin, the formaldehyde may be entirely or partially replaced by a formaldehyde donor, eg. hexamethylenetetramine, and from 3 to 50% of carbohydrates or glue, have proved particularly advantageous. Such mixtures may be employed in powder form, or suspended, partially dissolved or completely dissolved in liquids, such as water. In a flame, such fireproofmg agents form firmly coherent, porous, carbonaceous foam, which is an excellent heat insulator. Such coating agents are described, for example, in the following patents and patent applications:

German Pat. No. 962,824, German Published Application DAS No. 1 ,061 ,01 1 , German Pat. No. 1 ,065,1 16, and German Laid-Open Applications DOS No. 1 ,644,780, DOS No. 1 ,794,343 and DOS No. 2,200, 104.

It is also known to convert such coating agents to thicker strips, for example by applying the agent, in the form of a paste, to a glass fiber fabric or fleece, drying the material and cutting it into strips. When glued into grooves in door leaves, they seal the rabbet of the door by foaming in the event of a fire. This method of protection is described, for example, in Wood Treatment 1975/18, page 3; in many countries, providing doors and closable connecting hatches between different rooms with such fireproofing strips is legally prescribed.

There has been a tendency to replace the protective strips by pastes which can be spread directly in the rabbet grooves. The available compositions which can be processed as pastes suffer from the fact that, unlike strips, they do not contain any reinforcing structures (fabrics or the like) and hence are preferentially formulated so that in the dry condition they possess mechanical strength (for example in order not to crumble when the door is slammed).

In aiming at such formulations, the ability of the strips to froth up in the event of a fire, which ability must of course be much more pronounced than in the case of finishing compositions, is neglected.

Whilst finishes, when exposed to heat, in most cases only foam to form 5 to 10 times the volume of the composition not exposed to heat, fireproofing strips must have an initially small cross-section (for example 0.5 cm.sup.2) but must, in the event of a fire, foam to fill the entire door rabbet, which frequently fits badly. For this, expansion ratios (cfi, in this context, German Published Application DAS No. 1 ,061 ,01 1 ) of more than 10 are absolutely essential. The resulting carbonaceous foam should be sufficiently stable mechanically to develop additional forces holding the frame and the door together. It is an object of the present invention to provide fireproofmg compositions which may be applied to door rabbets as pastes and which, after drying, have adequate mechanical strength and in the event of fire foam to more than 10 times their original volume.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION :

We have found that this and other objects are achieved if the conventional aminoplasts (ie. condensates of urea, melamine, dicyandiamide and the like with formaldehyde or other aldehydes), which have hitherto been employed extensively as base materials for such pasts or coating agents, are replaced by a phenol-formaldehyde or other phenol-aldehyde resin (minor amounts of aminoplasts can of course also be present) and if, furthermore, a combination of certain other substances is used. Hence, the invention in particular relates to a fire retardant and fireproofmg composition which forms an insulating layer, is preferentially used to coat the combustible articles especially wood to prevent the passage of flames in the event of a fire, and contains an effective amount of each of the following:

(a) Arabic gum or natural glue.

(b) an ammonium salt, such as urea.

(c) a carbohydrate and/or a polyhydric alcohol and

(d) a thermally decomposable organic nitrogen compound.

(e) Water and/or an organic solvent in an amount such that the constituents (a) to (d) remain substantially paint solution to be spread able and form homogenous coat. (f) the fireproof composition could also modified by the addition of copper salt and formaldehyde to be used as fire retardant and termite fighting in the same time.

The term "effective amount", as used above, means that the omission or reduction of this amount results in a marked deterioration in the

expandability of the composition in respect of volume and/or of stability of the resulting fire retardant composition.

Examples of ammonium salts are those conventionally used for the production of expandable compositions, especially the phosphates;

ammonium polyphosphates, as described in German Laid-Open

Applications DOS No. 1 ,567,674 and DOS No. 1 ,794,343, are preferred. Their proportion in the solids content of the expandable composition is in general from 25 to 45% by weight.

The carbohydrates or polyhydric alcohols employed are the sugars conventionally employed industrially in expandable compositions, eg. sucrose, lactose and arabinose, as well as tetrahydric, pentahydric and hexahydric alcohols, eg. sorbitol, pentaerythritol, mannitol and their oligomers, eg. dipentaerythritol. Their function, in such compositions, is, in the event of a fire, to produce large amounts of loose carbon which can easily foam to form voluminous structures. Of course, mixtures of the above substances can be used. The use of pentaerythritol and dipentaerythritol is preferred. The proportion of the carbohydrates and/or polyhydric alcohols in the solids content of the composition according to the invention is in general from about 10 to 20% by weight.

The thermally decomposable organic nitrogen compounds used are especially compounds of the type of urea, melamine or dicyandiamide, ie. Compounds which contain nitrogen in the form of amide groups. Together with other constituents of the mixture, they are capable of forming large amounts of gases. They may be employed either in the pure form or in resinous form, ie. As aminoplasts, but the former is preferred. Their proportion in the solids content of the compositions is in general from 10 to 50% by weight.

The binders used, if any, are soluble or at least dispersible vinyl polymers, which in most cases are film-forming, and the proportion of which is in general kept low. This proportion is usually from 1 to 10% by weight, and the material is preferably introduced in the form of a solution or dispersion in water and/or an organic solvent into the composition which in the first instance has to be worked to a spread able or putty-like consistency, as is shown in the Examples. If a phenolic resin which is partially dissolved by the solvent system present is employed, the use of the above binders may in certain cases be unnecessary.

The binder may be of various types; both water-soluble systems, such as polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylic acid or corresponding copolymers, and dispersible polymers, such as homopolymers and copolymers of vinyl acetate, vinyl propionate, acrylic esters, styrene, vinyl chloride and acrylonitrile, may be used.

The proportion of water or solvent is only significant in respect of the processing of the compositions and is determined by the requirement that the composition shall be spread able, putty-like or flowable. As a rule, less than 50% by weight (based on the total composition, ie. including water and solvent), and in most cases less than 50% by weight, suffices. The compositions according to the invention can furthermore contain, in overall minor amounts, constituents which do not form part of the invention, for example dyes, pigments, swelling agents, wetting agents, dispersants, fungicides, bactericides, formaldehyde, and copper salt extenders, eg. Wood flour, fibrous materials, eg. glass fibers, asbestos or textile fibers, metal powders and halo hydrocarbons. The use of formaldehyde and copper salt make the composition able to fight the termite especially in wood articles.

EXAMPLES EXAMPLE 1 :

17 parts by weight of (1) 100% strength Arabic gum risen, solid, thermosetting, as sold, 15 parts by weight of (2) phosphoric acid 10 parts by weight of (3) diethanolamine, 5 parts by weight of (4) glucose, 6 parts by weigh of (5) mono ammonium phosphate, 3 parts by weight of (6) urea and 44 part of water 100 parts by weight.

EXAMPLE 2:

The composition corresponds to Example 1 but instead of mono ammonium phosphate (5), an equal amount of diammonium phosphate is used.

EXAMPLE 3

The composition corresponds to Example 1 but instead of urea (3), an equal amount of melamine is used.

EXAMPLE 4:

To the composition corresponds to Example 1 5 parts by weight of copper tetramine and 3 parts by weight of formaldehyde are added.

Within this framework, not only one component at a time, as in the preceding Examples, but also several components simultaneously, can be replaced by other components of their particular category.

EXAMPLE 5 :

230 parts by weight of expanded mica of particle size 2 to 3 mm, 680 parts by weight of the base mixture according to Example 1 , 50 parts by weight of polyvinyl alcohol and 220 parts by weight of water are mixed together. Some of the water ( 180 parts by weight) is removed from the resultant wet granules by drying. The superficially dry granules can then be used for filling up a cable shaft. They are non-corrosive and do not release any substances. On heating, the granules expand to form an extremely voluminous porous mass.

EXAMPLE 6:

230 parts by weight of expanded mica of particle size 3 to 5 mm and 950 parts by weight of the fireproofing paste obtained by mixing the base mixture of Example 2 with mixture B are granulated in a coating drum. The granules are dried and can then be used as specified in Example 4.

Claims

1- A fire retardant composition comprising Arabic gum, phosphoric acid, diethahnol amine, urea, glucose, mono ammonium phosphate ,and water.

2- The composition of claim 1 17 parts by weight of (1 ) 100% strength Arabic gum risen, solid, thermosetting, as sold, 15 parts by weight of (2) phosphoric acid 10 parts by weight of (3) diethanolamine, 5 parts by weight of (4) glucose, 6 parts by weigh of (5) mono ammonium phosphate, 3 parts by weight of (6) urea and 44 part of water 100 parts by weight.

3- the composition of claim 1 could be modified to fire retardant/termite fighting composition containing 17 parts by weight of (1 ) 100% strength Arabic gum risen, solid, thermosetting, as sold, 15 parts by weight of (2) phosphoric acid 10 parts by weight of (3) diethanolamine, 5 parts by weight of (4) glucose, 6 parts by weigh of (5) mono ammonium phosphate, 3 parts by weight of (6) urea, 44 part of water, 6 parts copper tetramine, and 3 parts formaldehyde 100 parts by weight.

4- The composition of claim 1 , wherein the composition comprises 5.25% w/v H. sub.20. sub.2, 10% v/v orange terpene oil, 5% v/v povidone iodine, 10% v/v polysorbate 80, 0.05% nano silver of particle size 3 nm and 60% v/v distilled water.