Thermal Degradation Behaviors and Fire Retardant Properties of Poly(1,3,4-oxadiazole)s (POD) and Poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) Fibers

Thermal degradation behaviors and fire retardant properties of poly(1,3,4-oxadiazole)s (POD) and poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) fibers were investigated. The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) demonstrated that POD exhibited higher onset thermal degradation temperature (T-onset) than PMIA, exceeding nearly 80 degrees C. The thermal degradation kinetics, evaluated by the modified Coats-Redfern method, displayed that the apparent activation energy (E-a) of POD and PMIA fibers was similar when the conversion rate (alpha) ranges from 0.2 to 0.5, while with the alpha from 0.6 to 0.8, the E-a of POD was significantly lower than that of PMIA. The fire retardant performance of POD and PMIA fibers were evaluated by cone calorimeter under heat fluxes of 35, 50 and 75 kW/m(2), during which the temperature of the fibers were monitored by a thermocouple. Surprisingly, POD fibers showed inferior fire retardant performance in comparison with PMIA, with lower time to ignition (TTI) and higher peak heat release rate (PHRR). The origin of the different fire retardant properties of both fibers was revealed by analyzing the residual chars and gaseous products during thermal pyrolysis. The morphology confirmed that stable and compact chars can be formed in PMIA. In addition, the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization of the residual char revealed that POD can form carbonaceous chars at the heat flux of 50 kW/m(2), while the heat flux of PMIA was 75 kW/m(2). The pyrolysis products characterized by pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) indicated that POD can be pyrolyzed completely at 600 degrees C, while the temperature of PMIA was 700 degrees C.