Toxicity characteristics and fire retardant performance of commercially manufactured organic insulation materials for building applications

Traditionally, insulation materials have been developed to prevent heat loss or gain in buildings. Polymer compounds such as polyurethane, polystyrene, and polyethylene have been used to improve the performance of insulation materials during the modern industrialization process. However, because most insulating materials based on complex organic chemicals are combustible, they are susceptible to fire, and there are limitations such as the emission of harmful chemicals. The reason for the high number of casualties caused by insulation materials in building fires is that insulation materials based on complex chemical substances generate a large number of toxic gases, which causes suffocation. Therefore, the fire resistance performance of five types of insulation materials used in actual construction sites was evaluated in this study. Based on the total heat release (THR) and heat release rate (HRR), phenolic foam (PF) was the insulation material that satisfied the criteria of the non-combustible grade as a result of the flame-retardant performance evaluation. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectroscopy was used to perform a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of gaseous hazardous substances generated during the combustion of insulating materials by ISO 19702. The Fractional effective dose (FED) value was derived using the results of the analyses of eight gases by ISO 13344.