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Ammonium polyphosphate (APP) was synthesized by heating a mixture of phosphoric acid and urea, and APP/diatomite composite flame-retardant fillers were prepared by two methods: mixing and in situ polymerization. Flame-retardant paper was made by adding the prepared composite fillers to paper. The APP and APP/diatomite composite fillers were characterized by XRD, 31PNMR, SEM, FTIR, and TG. The flame retardation of paper containing these composite fillers was determined. Results showed that the prepared APP had a minimum solubility when the molar ratio of phosphoric acid to urea was 1:1.8. Under these conditions, its degree of polymerization was 91.21. After mixing and in situ polymerization, a large amount of APP was adsorbed into the surface of the diatomite. These two APP/diatomite composite fillers had similar thermal stabilities, but the flame retardation of paper containing in situ polymerized composite filler was better than that of paper containing the composite filler obtained by mixing.

A three-component flame-retardant system was prepared based on in situ polymerization of ammonium polyphosphate (APP), diatomite (DE), and aluminium trihydroxide (ATH) to improve the flame retardance and smoke suppression properties of fibrous materials. Compared to the two-component system of APP-DE, the addition of APP-10% DE-4% ATH dosed at a filler load of 20% of the fibrous material reached a limited oxygen index of 27.5%, which was approximately 9.1% higher than the two-component system. The lower mass loss rate and higher residual mass at high temperatures resulted in excellent flame retardance. The synergistic effect on alleviating combustion and reducing heat release was shown by the 16.6%, 22.1%, and 12.5% decreases in the peak heat release rate, total heat release, and average effective heat combustion, respectively. Superior fire resistance was demonstrated by a higher fire performance index and a lower mass loss. A smoke suppression effect was shown by the peak smoke release rate and the total smoke release results that were 28.7% and 15.8% lower than the two-component system, respectively. Based on the porous structure of DE and generated aluminum oxide (Al2O3), the outstanding adsorption effect and flame-retardant effect was also demonstrated by the production rate of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]