Flame retardant synergism of GUP and boric acid by cone calorimetry

Wood was treated with a new composite flame retardant (FRW), with its components guanyl urea phosphate (GUP) and boric acid (BA) to impart flame retardance. The flame retarding behavior of these samples was valued by cone calorimeter. The flammability parameters, including rate of heat release (RHR), total heat release (THR), effective heat of combustion (EHC), total mass loss (TML) and mass loss rate (MLR), yield of CO, smoke production rate (SPR), and specific extinction area (SEA) were recorded simultaneously. By analyzing these data, it was concluded that most combustion parameters of wood decreased by thetreatment, especially for the FRW treatment, considerably decreased while the date for wood treated with GUP or boric acid decreased much less for the similar upload, which indicated a synergistic effect of flame retardance and suppressing smoke between GUP and boric acid in FRW, which has not been reported in other researches until now. Meanwhile, the probable flame retardation mechanism was proposed.