Abstract

Montmorillonite-amino resin nano-composite was synthesized from melamine, dicyandiamide, phosphoric acid, formaldehyde and montmorillonite (MMT), and used to prepare fire-retardant hide powder. The impact of the nano-composite on the thermal stability of collagen fibres was studied. Both the Kissinger and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods were used to process the thermo-gravimetric data (TGA) from hide powder and fire-retardant hide powder at different heating rates. The results of the two methods showed that the thermal degradation activation energy of hide powder was 155.47-157.35kJ•mol-1, and that of fire-retardant hide powder increased to 209.05- 210.42kJ•mol-1, the char residual increased from 34.37% to 45.47%. The oxygen index of fire-retardant leather treated with the nano-composite increased significantly to 30.9%. It was shown that the thermal stability and flame retardant property of collagen fibres and leather were improved significantly.