A novel household fill material fabricated from waste peanut shells and thermoplastic polyurethane with flame retardant and antibacterial functions

Abstract

Large amounts of peanut shells were abandoned each year in China and the abandoned peanut shells were subjected to incineration or landfill, which not only polluted environment, but also wasted resources. So, a household fill material with flame retardant and antibacterial functions was fabricated with abandoned peanut shell and discarded thermoplastic polyurethane by plasticizing, blending and hot pressing. The main factors that affect the flame retardant performance and the regression model of limiting oxygen index were obtained by response surface analysis. The regression model helped to predict materials flame retardant ability and achieve the optimal preparation condition, which as follows: the peanut shell mass fraction 49.5 %, ammonium polyphosphate mass fraction 4.4 %, Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) flame retardants mass fraction 14.2 %, under these conditions, the limiting oxygen index of materials was 32.78 %. While after added 3wt % Tetra-needle like ZnO whiskers at the same condition, the limiting oxygen index was 32.7 %, and the antimicrobial ratio of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella reached 96.03, 96.98 and 92.33 % respectively.