The influence of highly dispersed Cu2O-anchored MoS2 hybrids on reducing smoke toxicity and fire hazards for rigid polyurethane foam

The extensive utilization of rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) as construction insulation material has brought two main troubles to our society: fire risks and toxic hazards. To reduce the fire hazards of RPUF, a layered MoS 2 decorated with Cu 2 O nanoparticles was creativity obtained by hydrothermal technology and facile wet chemical treatment for reducing the toxic product formations of polyurethane nanocomposites during combustion. Due to the low weight ratio of Cu 2 O attached onto MoS 2 , the resulting Cu 2 O-MoS 2 hybrid effectively prevented the MoS 2 nanosheets from restacking. However, the Cu 2 O-MoS 2 -M hybrid was produced by increasing content of Cu 2 O, which has the characteristic stacked layer structure of MoS 2 . Reduced harmful organic volatiles and the toxic gases (e.g. a respective decrease of ca. 28% and 53% for CO and NO x products) were obtained because of synergistic effect between the physical adsorption of MoS 2 and catalysis action of Cu 2 O. Notably, the addition of Cu 2 O-MoS 2 hybrids led to high char formation of the RPUF nanocomposite, indicating the effectively catalytic carbonization property. In addition, the N-Gas model for predicting fire smoke toxicity was developed and demonstrated. Furthermore, the research offers direct proofs of the negative influence of the stacked MoS 2 on reducing the smoke toxicity for RPUF nanocomposites.