Received: 13 August 2019 Revised: 29 November 2019 Accepted: 13 December 2019

DOI: 10.1002/fam.2802

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Study of flame-retarded silicone rubber with ceramifiable

property

Zhixi Li1 | Wenjuan Liang2 | Yifei Shan1 | Xiaoxiao Wang1 | Kun Yang1 |
Yongyan Cui1

1
College of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science, Tianjin University of Summary
Science and Technology, Tianjin, China Fire-resistant ceramifiable silicone rubber composites with excellent comprehensive
2
Key Laboratory of Rubber-Plastics, Ministry
property were prepared in this paper. Silicone rubber was used as the base polymer,
of Education/Shandong Provincial Key
Laboratory of Rubber-Plastics, Qingdao aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, zinc borate, and glass frits were addi-
University of Science and Technology,
tives. The flammability and thermal stability properties, essentially focusing on the
Qingdao, China
use of the limiting oxygen index and thermogravimetric analysis, were all studied.
Correspondence
Besides, the ceramic residues were also studied by mechanical testing, scanning elec-
Kun Yang, College of Chemical Engineering
and Materials Science, Tianjin University of tron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The ceramifying silicone rubber could achieve
Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457,
a limiting oxygen index value of 34.8%, and the flexural strength of ceramic residues
China.
Email: yangkun1463@126.com formed at 800 C was 9.7 MPa. The residue of composites was approximately 58.6%
at 700 C, which is significantly higher than that of neat silicone rubber. The scanning
Funding information
the Fundation of Key Laboratory of Rubber- electron microscopy analysis depicted that a dense structure was formed as formed.
Plastics, Ministry of Education/Shandong
Provincial Key Laboratory of Rubber-plastics of
KEYWORDS
Qingdao University of Science & Technology,
Grant/Award Number: KF2017008; the ceramifiable, flame retardant, glass powder, silicone rubber
National Natural Science Foundation of China,
Grant/Award Number: 51403115; Key
Laboratory of Rubber-Plastics, Ministry of
Education/Shandong Provincial Key
Laboratory of Rubber-Plastics of Qingdao
University of Science & Technology, Grant/
Award Number: KF2017008; National Natural
Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award
Number: 51403115

1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N coating, foaming fireproof high-temperature treatment material, and

Protecting personal and property safety is a major concern in the fire.
Therefore, fire-resistant rubber products must be required in key fire
protection departments, such as construction, electric power, vehicles,
airplanes, and ships.1 Silicone rubber (SR) is a semi-organic and semi-
inorganic material with low heat release rate, low total heat release,
3-8
and low fire index. At the same time, SR has excellent thermal sta-
bility, which is transformed into a continuous, oxidation-resistant,
insulating network-like silica ash covering the surface after burning,2
effectively preventing further ablation. However, its own flame ret-
ardancy performance is not enough to meet the requirements of
products, such as fire door, fireproof cable material, building fireproof
rocket launch platform high-temperature fire insulation layer. Fire
retardants are also required to promote some resistance to fire of the
treated materials in terms of structural integrity for some time when
subjected to a fire event. The emergence of ceramized SR provides a
new response to the safety of flame-retardant materials in the event
of a fire.9 The ceramized SR also has the basic characteristics of SR at
normal temperature, such as nontoxic, odorless, high- and low-
temperature resistance, ozone aging resistance, weathering resistance,
excellent electrical insulation properties, and good processing
properties.10
There are many possible ways to form the ceramic layer. The key
is to bond the inorganic filler dispersed in the matrix by forming a

Fire and Materials. 2019;1–10. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fam © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1
2 LI ET AL.

liquid phase with a low-melting inorganic filler.11-14 Ceramic bodies T A B L E 1 Formulations of ceramifiable flame-retarded silicone
with a certain mechanical strength can be formed without low melting rubber composites

point glass powder, but in the low-temperature environment, the SR0 SR1 SR2 SR3 SR4 SR5
formed ceramic body has low strength and does not meet the require- SR 100 100 100 100 100 100
ments of use.15-18 The study of ceramized rubber began in the 1960s.
Fumed silica 30 30 30 30 30 30
In 1964, Anyszka et al19 proposed the concept of ceramic compound
Hydroxy silicone oil 3 3 3 3 3 3
precursor conversion ceramics, but it did not attract the attention of
DBPH 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6
the material industry at that time. Until in 1978, Yajima et al20 pre-
Al(OH)3 20 20 10
pared high-strength SiC fibers from polysiloxane precursors and
Mg(OH)2 20 20 10
industrialized them in 1983. Currently, ceramic fillers usually are inor-
CaCO3 10 10
ganic silicates such as mica, wollastonite, silica, and clay.21 The
ceramic fillers may be used singly or in combination. Mansouri et al 22 Zinc borate 30 30 30

selected mica and glass powder as fillers and found that glass powder
greatly improved the ceramic properties of SR. Shao et al23 signifi-
cantly reduced the ceramic-forming temperature of SR by adding glass
powder to the SR. Although the addition of the glass powder can
improve the ceramic-forming effect of the SR, the flame retardancy of
the SR is not improved. Wang et al used ceramic rubber as the matrix
and added glass powder to produce ceramic polymer materials.24 At
present, there are few studies on the mica cooperation system. Due
to the lower melting point of the glass frit, which can be melted at a
lower temperature form a liquid phase, serving to bond the siloxane
25
matrix and other fillers. Hanu et al studied the thermal stability and
flammability of the SR composite with one or more of mica, glass frit,
and iron oxide. When the system contains 15% mica and 5% glass frit,
the system has the best thermal stability and can decrease the tem-
perature at which the ceramic body is formed: Replacing a portion of
the glass frit with iron oxide can reduce the rate of heat release and
show better heat resistance. Branlard et al26 studied the effect of zinc
oxide on the organosilicon/mica system. Experiments have shown
that the strength of the ceramic layer formed by the system of mica
and zinc oxide mixed at high temperature is higher than that of the
system with only mica.
Therefore, in this work, ceramized SR with both flame retardant
and fire resistance properties was prepared by adding glass powder
and flame retardant; the effects of magnesium hydroxide, aluminum
hydroxide, and zinc borate on the ceramic properties of SR were stud-
ied. The flame retardancy, dimensional stability, and porcelain of
ceramic powders with different melting points were also investigated.
The flame-retardant properties and thermal shock performance of SR
were expected to improve by adding flame retardant and porcelain
filler to prepare SR material with better flame-retardant effect. The
concept of porcelain was introduced in the flame-retardant theory,
which improves the flame-retardant mechanism of SR.
Glass powder 1 30 30 30
Glass powder 2 70 70 60 60 60
Abbreviations: Al(OH)3, aluminum hydroxide; CaCO3, calcium carbonate;
DBPH, 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-bis(tert-butylperoxy) hexane; Mg(OH)2,
magnesium hydroxide; SR, silicone rubber.
average particle size of 14 nm) was provided by Cabot Corporation.
2,5-Dimethyl-2,5-bis(tert-butylperoxy) hexane (DBPH) was purchased
from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co, Ltd, China. Magnesium
hydroxide and aluminum hydroxide were purchased from Hefei
Zhongke Flame Retardant New Material Co, Ltd. Glass powder was
purchased from Foshan Youhe Chemical Technology Co, Ltd. Melting
point of glass powder 1 is 600 C; melting point of glass powder
2 is 800 C.
2.2 | Preparation of ceramic flame-retardant SR
The raw materials were weighed according to the formulation of
Table 1. The SR was wrapped on a common two-roll mill, and then,
fumed silica, hydroxy silicone oil, ceramic filler, and flame retardant
were added. After being uniformly mixed, the vulcanizing agent DBPH
was added, and the mixture was uniformly mixed, and then, the lower
sheet was added. The mixing time was about 10 minutes, and the
visual dispersion could be achieved. Then, the kneaded SR was placed
in a conventional flat vulcanizing machine and molded into a sheet,
and the vulcanization condition was 170 C × T90, and two-stage vul-
canization was carried out in a forced air oven at a vulcanization con-
dition of 200 C × 2 hours.
2.3 | Characterization

The vulcanization characteristic was tested using a nonrotor vulca-

2 | EXPERIMENTAL nizer (ZWL-III type according to GB/T9869-1997), Yangzhou
Daochun Experimental Machinery Factory.
2.1 | Raw materials The tear strength, tensile strength, and elongation at break of the
samples were performed on a computer-controlled electronic tensile
Silicone rubber was purchased from Dongjue Silicone Group Co, Ltd. testing machine (CMT4503, Meters Industrial Systems Co, Ltd, China)
Hydroxy silicone oil was purchased from Qingdao Fenghong Chemical with a constant speed of 200 mm min−1 at room temperature. All the
2
Co, Ltd. Fumed silica (Y150, specific surface area of 120 ± 15 m /g, specimens were tested according to the GB/T 528-1998.
LI ET AL.
FIGURE 1 Vulcanization curve of ceramized silicone rubber
The limiting oxygen index (LOI) was tested using an oxygen index
instrument (HG900-2 type, Liaoning Wan shan Analytical Instrument
Equipment Factory) according to the GB/T 10707-2008 standard.
The test specimens were 80 × 10 × 4 mm3 in dimension.
The smoke suppression effect of flame-retardant ceramic SR was
studied by using building material smoke density meter (CY-3 type).
The sample size was 25 × 25 × 6 mm.
The hardness of the sample was tested by Shore hardness tester
LX-A, Wenzhou Shan du Instrument Co, Ltd.
The morphology of the ceramic residues was observed with a
scanning electron microscope (SEM, JSM-6380LV, Japan Electronics
Corporation). The accelerated voltage was 20 kV. All samples were
coated with a gold thin layer prior to examination.
The thermogravimetric (TG) analysis was performed on a TG ana-
lyzer (TA Instruments) at a heating rate of 10 C min−1 under a nitro-
gen atmosphere. Sample mass of approximately 10 mg was performed
in a temperature range from room temperature to 800 C.
The flexural strength of the ceramic residues was determined
according to the three-point bend method with a universal testing
machine (CMT4204, SANS, Inc, Shenzhen, China) according to the
GB/T 9596-2006 standard. Loading was applied at a rate of
−1
0.5 mm min .
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed by an XRD
device with a Cu-Kα radiation (D/max2550 V) ranging from 10 to
70 in (2θ) angles.
The flexural strength of the ceramic residues was determined
according to the three-point bend method with a universal testing
machine (CMT4204, SANS, Inc, Shenzhen, China) according to the
GB/T 9596-2006 standard. Loading was applied at a rate of
−1
0.5 mm min .
3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1 shows the curing curve of different kinds of ceramized SR. It
could be seen that the maximum torque MH increases after adding
3
T A B L E 2 Effects of addition of ceramic filler on the vulcanization
behavior of silicone rubber
ML, N
m MH, N
m T10, min T90, min
SR0 0.12 1.07 0.62 2.21
SR1 0.17 1.49 0.35 1.61
SR2 0.21 1.64 0.35 1.35
SR3 0.31 1.95 0.56 2.88
SR4 0.31 1.91 0.60 2.79
SR5 0.37 2.07 0.57 2.62
Abbreviations: MH, maximum torque; ML, minimum torque; SR, silicone
rubber; T10, scorching time; T90, process vulcanization time.
flame retardant and the ceramic filler, which indicates that the modu-
lus of the vulcanized rubber increases and the flow properties of the
system are deteriorated. The values of ML, MH, T10, and T90 were all
shown in Table 2. The curing parameters were basically the same
between SR1 and SR2, which means that the effect on curing prop-
erty with the same filler content of Al(OH)3 and Mg(OH)2 is similar.
However, with the addition of zinc borate and glass powder (SR3,
SR4, and SR5), the modulus and curing time will increase. T90 of
the SR composites increases, indicating that the vulcanization rate
of the system is slowed down and the scorch time increases because
of the flame retardant and the ceramic filler can further delay the cur-
ing process.
The mechanical properties, including tensile strength, elongation
at break, tear strength, and Shore A of SR composites, were presented
in Figure 2. Significantly, the tensile strength and elongation at break
of SR were decreased to varying degrees after adding fire retardant.
This may be because that Al(OH)3 and Mg(OH)2 are not compatible
with the SR matrix. But the addition of glass powder and fluxing agent
leads to an increase of elongation at break. After adding to zinc borate
and low-melting glass frit, the elongation at break increased from
170% to 300%. Compared with unfilled sample SR0, the tear strength
of the SR composite with glass powder and zinc borate was slightly
improved. But Shore A hardness of the SR composite increased signif-
icantly from 58 to 74 because of the higher hardness of inorganic
fillers than polymers.
Generally, the materials exhibited the LOI values higher than
26 being considered as flame-retardant materials and displayed a self-
extinguishing property.27 In Figure 3, the LOI values of various SR
composites were presented. The LOI of raw SR was only 25. After
adding to flame-retardant agent Al(OH)3 or Mg(OH)2, the values of
SR2 and SR3 increase to 31.7 and 32.5 sharply, respectively. The
values of SR3, SR4, and SR5 with zinc borate and glass powder
increased further to 33.5, 34.8, and 34.2, respectively. The flame-
retardant effect can be significantly improved by the fluxing agent
zinc borate and low melting point glass powder. Zinc borate not only
has excellent flame-retardant effect but also has a lower melting point
of zinc borate, which can form a liquid phase during the ceramization
process, and acts as a bonding bridge to form a dense ceramic body,
which blocks the flame from continuing to burn. In Table 3, analysis
4 LI ET AL.
FIGURE 2 Mechanical properties of silicone rubber composites: (A) stress-strain curve and (B) Shore A and tear strength
F I G U R E 3 The limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of different
silicone rubber composites
by smoke density grade and the maximum smoke density, it can be
seen that SR1 and SR2 have a significant effect on the smoke sup-
pression effect compared with the control SR0, zinc borate and low
melting point glass powder were added to SR3 and SR4, and the glass
borate formed after melting of zinc borate forms a barrier layer on the
surface of polymer matrix, which has a certain smoke suppression
effect. But compared with SR1 and SR2, the smoke suppression effect
is reduced. We suspect that because too much filler is added, the
smoke density is higher and the light transmittance is decreased.
The flammability and thermal stability properties of ceramifying
SR composites were studied by TG analysis. Commonly, the thermal
28
degradation of neat SR includes two steps. The TG curves of SR
composites and the corresponding derivative TG (DTG) curves under
the nitrogen atmosphere were shown in Figure 4. The first degrada-
tion starts at 420.8 C with a maximum mass loss rate (461 C) in this
step, caused by the thermal oxidation of the SR side chain group,
whereas the second degradation step (between 514.6 C and
597.8 C) with a maximum mass loss rate at 549 C was attributed to
the rupture of the main chain presenting a 25.3% residue at
700 C.29 Compared with samples SR1 and SR2, the residual amount
was increased 8% by adding to zinc borate and low melting point
glass powder.
T A B L E 3 Smoke density grade and maximum smoke density of
flame-retardant ceramic silicone rubber
SDR/% MSD/%
SR0 25.05 65.80
SR1 25.57 38.57
SR2 24.80 37.10
SR3 28.03 44.36
SR4 32.43 55.67
SR5 28.60 43.16
Abbreviations: MSD, maximum smoke density; SDR, smoke density grade;
SR, silicone rubber.
The DTG curve of the flame-retardant ceramized SR indicates that
the SR also has two decomposition stages, wherein the first stage cor-
responds to the decomposition of the SR cross-link bond and the sec-
ond stage corresponds to the decomposition of the main chain of the
SR. For samples SR3, SR4, and SR5, the maximum weight loss rate
temperature (Tmax2) of the SR composite main chain decreased to
480.2 C, and the maximum degradation rate (Rmax2) decreased to
3.9%/min. The metal oxide in the glass powder forming the liquid
phase has a catalytic cracking effect on the cross-linking bond of the
SR.30 During combustion, the low-melting glass frits are more easily to
form a liquid phase at lower temperatures, and the metal oxide is more
likely to be produced. Meantime, the flame retardant also burns to
produce a metal oxide, so the maximum weight loss rate of the cross-
linked bonds of the SR composite decreases. In addition, the residue
of the SR3, SR4, and SR5 samples at 700 C was 60.8%, being higher
than 53.4% for the SR1 and SR2 and 25.8% for the SR0. According to
the analysis from LOI and TG results, the thermal stability and flame-
retardant effect of the sample were significantly improved by adding a
low softening point glass powder and zinc borate compound filler.
We carried out combustion tests on flame-retardant ceramic
SR. In Figure 5, the sample was burned for 20 seconds under the
flame of alcohol lamp. The sample SR0 burned violently, after leaving
the flame, still burning until all burned out. The samples SR1 and SR2
rupture during combustion, which may be the gas produced by the
LI ET AL.
FIGURE 4 (A) Thermogravimetric (TG) and (B) derivative TG (DTG) results of all samples from 25 C to 800 C under nitrogen atmosphere
FIGURE 5 Combustion tests on flame-retardant ceramic silicone rubber
combustion of hydroxide flame retardant, under the external flame of
an alcohol lamp for 20 seconds; the flame-retardant performance of
the sample is greatly improved compared with the control sample
SR0, burning slowly; after leaving the flame, the self-extinguishing
time is relatively long, and the sample is loose and not deformed after
combustion. The samples SR3, SR4, and SR5 are extremely difficult to
burn under the external flame of an alcohol lamp, and the self-
extinguishing time after the ignition is short, which proves that zinc
borate and other fluxes play an important role in the formation of
ceramics.
The surface morphology of the SR composites after calcination at
600 C and 800 C was presented in Figure 6. As presented in
Figure 6, the residue for the control SR0 sample was fragmented,
loose amorphous silica. After 600 C sintering, the surfaces of SR1 and
SR2 were covered by residue, and there are a number of holes and
cracks on the loose surface of SR3, SR4, and SR5. In a word, there
were no integrated ceramics that were observed. It cannot be a dense
and hard ceramic because the flame-retardant aluminum hydroxide
and magnesium hydroxide emit gas during the combustion process
and the softening point of the ceramic filler cannot be reached at low
sintering temperature.31 In contrast, the residues of the SR1, SR2,
SR3, SR4, and SR5 samples after sintering at 800 C were transformed
into an integrated ceramics shown in Figure 6. The ceramic residue of
SR1 to SR5 showed a compact appearance and smooth surface with
white color.
The cross-section morphology of the SR3, SR4, and SR5 samples

fired for 60 minutes at 600 C was observed by SEM, and the images
are presented in Figure 7. It showed many holes and cracks on the
5
relatively loose surface of the SR3, SR4, and SR5 specimens, which
was insufficient to become a ceramic body.
The cross-section morphology of the SR0 to SR5 samples fired
for 60 minutes at 800 C was observed by SEM, and the images were
presented in Figure 8. Compared with the SR3 to SR5 samples fired
for 60 minutes at 600 C, the SR3, SR4, and SR5 samples fired at
800 C were dense as a whole except for a few pores and form a
ceramic skeleton, and it could be considered that the sample has been
substantially porcelainized. Due to the lack of flux such as zinc borate,
SR1 and SR2 samples were not dense as a whole, and the continuous
dense layer was less. Zinc borate forms liquid phase–infiltrated solid
particles, which play the role of adhering filler by cooling and solidifi-
cation. Due to the melting process of the low-melting glass frit, it is
possible to fill the pores and gaps, thereby generating an additional
amount of liquid phase and hydrogen. Magnesium oxide produced by
the decomposition of magnesium oxide is a very good flux, which
greatly increases the strength and compactness of the porcelain.
The flexural strength of the samples after ceramic process at

800 C was presented in Figure 9. Flexural strength increased signifi-
cantly with the addition of zinc borate and low-melting glass powder.
The SR3 showed the maximum flexural strength with a value of
9.65 MPa, exhibiting an excellent mechanical property. The more liq-
uid phase was produced in SR3 that filled the gaps and holes in the
char residue and adhered the other fillers together, causing an excel-
lent mechanical property. The excellent flexural strength can be
explained by the number of holes decrease and the compact layer for-
mation of ceramics at high temperatures. This is consistent with the
result of the above SEM results.
6 LI ET AL.

FIGURE 6 Digital photographs of the residues after fire at different temperature: (A) 600 C and (B) 800 C

FIGURE 7 Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of cross section of the ceramics formed at 600 C: (A) SR3, (B) SR4, and (C) SR5

The ceramifying process of SR composites at high temperatures
was studied with XRD. The XRD patterns of the zinc borate, glass frit
1, and glass frit 2 at room temperature and the SR0 to SR5 samples
sintered at 800 C for 60 minutes were presented in Figure 10. The
chemical formula of zinc borate is 2ZnO
3B2O3
3.5H2O. It can not
only improve the flame retardancy of the composite when used for
ceramic fireproofing materials but also act as a flux to promote the
formation of ceramics under high temperature. Glass powder is an
amorphous hard particle, mainly containing SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, Na2O,
K2O, P2O5, and other metal oxides. In Figure 10B, the ceramics exhibit
LI ET AL.
FIGURE 8 Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of cross section of the ceramics formed at 800 C
FIGURE 9 Flexural strength of the silicone rubber ceramic
residue
a new diffraction peak at 2θ = 21 , which corresponds to quartz stone
(Quartz). Since the decomposition product of the SR and the fumed
silica is amorphous silica, which begins to crystallize above
1200 C,32,33 it can be inferred that the diffraction peak of quartz
stone is a crystal, which is dissolved in the liquid phase by the glass frit
1 after being melted by heat and precipitates during the cooling pro-
34,35
cess, at which time the glass powder acts as a flux. The diffracted
characteristic peak of zinc borate disappears, and the B2O3-ZnO glass
phase is melted and reacted with Mg(OH)2-decomposed MgO to
transform into a hard MgO ceramic protective layer, which effectively
blocks the heat transfer.36 Besides, the new intensive diffraction
peaks of ceramics (2θ = 23.1 , 25.6 , 30.8 , 31.6 , 34.2 , 36.8 , 49.3 ,
65.6 ) were detected at 800 C; a “hump” appears between 2θ = 12

to 30 , which is a diffuse scattering peak of amorphous matter. It indi-
cates that the ceramized SR forms a glass liquid phase during thermal
decomposition and forms an amorphous frit after liquid phase
7
cooling.37,38 For SR1 and SR2 in Figure 10C, the new diffraction peak
appearing at 2θ = 21 , mainly quartzite, and the new intensive diffrac-
tion peaks of ceramics (2θ = 25.4 , 27.5 , 36.1 , 48.26 , 53.9 , 62.6 )
were detected at 800 C, indicating that an in situ reaction between
silica and CaO has formed a new Ca2SiO4 crystal.39 But there was no
obvious “hump,” and the strength of the porcelain without comelting
is very weak. In summary, the molten glass powder 1 and the zinc
borate and the ablation product of the SR (amorphous silica) form a
eutectic at 800 C, and new crystalline phase precipitates upon
cooling. At this time, the strength of the ceramics was close to the
maximum value.
The existing porcelainization mechanism of ceramic SR is that
when the ceramic SR encounters an open flame or a high tempera-
ture, the SR matrix degrades to form small molecules and volatilizes
from the matrix. In Figure 11, as the temperature rises to the soften-
ing point of the zinc borate and low-melting glass powder (also
referred to as the porcelain temperature),32 the flux begins to melt to
form a liquid phase, at which time the SR substantially decomposes
completely to form an amorphous SiO2 powder, and the flux acts as a
“bridge,” so that the SiO2 powder and the ceramic filler particles are
bonded to each other to form a whole. Finally, after cooling and solidi-
fying, a hard porous ceramic body is obtained.40
4 | CONC LU SIONS
In this paper, ceramifiable flame-retarded SR composites were pre-
pared. The flammability of the composites was investigated by LOI.
The LOI test indicated that a 34.8% LOI of the composites was
achieved. The flexural strength of the ceramic residues formed at
800 C was 9.7 MPa. Zinc borate can act as both a flame retardant
and a low melting point binder in ceramming systems. Magnesium
8 LI ET AL.

FIGURE 10 X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of ceramifying silicone rubber composites at 800 C

FIGURE 11 Schematic illustration of the mechanism of ceramifying silicone rubber

LI ET AL.
hydroxide and low-melting glass powder also play an important role in
the porcelain-forming process. The XRD analysis showed that when
the temperature reaches 800 C, the zinc borate, the glass powder liq-
uid phase, forms a eutectic with the glass powder and the amorphous
silica, wherein a eutectic reaction occurs to precipitate a new crystal
phase. The SEM tests demonstrated that coherent and compact
microstructures were formed at high temperatures, possibly contrib-
uting to excellent flexural strength acquisition of ceramic residues. All
these test results demonstrated that an efficient ceramifiable flame-
retarded SR composite was prepared successfully.
ACKNOWLEDGEMEN TS
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (no. 51403115) and the Key Laboratory of
Rubber-Plastics, Ministry of Education/Shandong Provincial Key Lab-
oratory of Rubber-Plastics of Qingdao University of Science & Tech-
nology (KF2017008).
ORCID
Kun Yang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3262-4056
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How to cite this article: Li Z, Liang W, Shan Y, Wang X,
Yang K, Cui Y. Study of flame-retarded silicone rubber with
ceramifiable property. Fire and Materials. 2019;1–10. https://
doi.org/10.1002/fam.2802