Preparation and characterisation of flame retardant encapsulated with functionalised silica-based shell.

Intumescent fire retardant (IFR) coatings are nowadays considered as the most effective flame retardant (FR) treatment. Nevertheless, the principal compound in an IFR system, ammonium polyphosphate (APP), is highly sensitive to moisture and IFR coating effectiveness decreases quickly. The main objective of this study is to encapsulate APP in a hybrid silica-based membrane by sol-gel process using alkoxysilane tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) precursor.