Abstract

This article presents a novel type of flame-retardant biohybrid foam with good insulation properties based on wheat gluten and silica, the latter polymerized in situ from hydrolysed tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). This led to the formation of intimately mixed wheat gluten and silica phases, where, according to protein solubility measurements and infrared spectroscopy, the presence of silica had prohibited full aggregation of the proteins. The foams with "built-in" flame-retardant properties had thermal insulation properties similar to those of common petroleum- and mineral-based insulation materials. The foams, with a porosity of 87 to 91%, were obtained by freeze-drying the liquid mixture. Their internal structure consisted of mainly open cells between 2 and 144 mu m in diameter depending on the foam formulation, as revealed by mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron microscopy. The foams prepared with >= 30% TEOS showed excellent fire-retardant properties and fulfilled the criteria of the best class according to UL94 fire testing standard. With increasing silica content, the foams became more brittle, which was prevented by cross-linking the materials (using gluteraldehyde) in combination with a vacuum treatment to remove the largest air bubbles. X-ray photoelectron and infrared spectroscopy showed that silicon was present mainly as SiO2 .

Published in

Journal of Materials Chemistry A
2014, Volume: 2, number: 48, pages: 20996-21009
Publisher: ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

SLU Authors

• Johansson, Eva

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Materials Engineering


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c4ta04787g

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/65942