Polyurethane films are widely used in applications such as automotives, home furniture, coatings, etc. They have good physical properties, but are prone to burn violently when exposed to an open flame. While many brominated flame retardants have been banned for their bioaccumulative tendencies, some are still persisting on the market. Research in our lab has synthesized a ferrocene-diol and subsequent integration into thin polyurethane films. Their flame retardancy and pairing with halloysite nanoclay filler showed excellent flame retardancy. The ferrocene-diols were synthesized using Friedel-Crafts acylation, where acetyl chloride was grafted onto the cyclopentadiene rings, followed by reduction of the carbonyls to result in two alcohol groups. Continuing work with this system will study the effects of alky length by substituting acetyl chloride with butyryl chloride and hexanoyl chloride. The formation of the ferrocene-diols was confirmed by characterization methods such as FT-IR and <sup>1</sup>H-NMR, and the thermal properties of the doped polyurethane films were tested using TGA and horizontal burn testing.

Polyurethanes containing ferrocene diols for increased flame regtardancy

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