Fire-resistant coating for wood construction materials using ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether epoxy resin cured with cashew nutshell liquid

Abstract

Motivated to improve the fire-resistance capacity of wood construction materials using sustainable materials, fire-resistant coating based on the formulation of ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) and cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) as a curing agent was implemented without thermal resistance additives. The coating formulations were first characterized for their chemical structure via Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) and their thermal properties by thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). A 2.83 difference at 800 ˚C was observed from the wt% residue of the coated and uncoated wood. The fireproofing performance of the coating was assessed over four types of wood species (gmelina, mahogany, moss, and pine) by UL94 vertical burning test and ASTM E119 furnace test. It was found that applying the coatings has significantly improved wood protection against fire. Besides, the coating performed better on gmelina wood than mahogany, moss, and pine wood.