Fire retardancy of a buckypaper membrane

A carbon nanotube membrane (buckypaper) was incorporated onto the surface of a Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes/glass fiber composite by vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding to improve the flame retardancy. The flammability was investigated with a cone calorimeter. With buckypaper on the surface, the heat release rate, peak heat release rate, smoke production rate and CO yield of the composite were decreased dramatically during the combustion. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.