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Scientific publications addressing the durability of the flame retardance of cables during their long-term application are rare and our understanding lacks. Three commercial flame retardants, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum diethyl phosphinate (AlPi-Et), and intumescent flame retardant based on ammonium polyphosphate, applied in ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) model cables, are investigated. Different artificial aging scenarios were applied: accelerated weathering (UV-irradiation/temperature/rain phases), humidity exposure (elevated temperature/humidity), and salt spray exposure. The deterioration of cables’ surface and flame retardancy were monitored through imaging, color measurements, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and cone calorimeter investigations. Significant degradation of the materials’ surface occurred. The flame retardant EVA cables are most sensitive to humidity exposure; the cable with AlPi-Et is the most sensitive to the artificial aging scenarios. Nevertheless, substantial flame retardance persisted after being subjected for 2000 h, which indicates that the equivalent influence of natural exposure is limited for several years, but less so for long-term use.
Nanotechnology is one of the key technologies of the 21st century. The exploitation of 'new' effects that arise from materials structured on the nano-scale has also been proposed successfully for flame retardancy of polymers since the end of the 90s. Of all of the approaches these include, at this time the use of nanocomposites offers the best potential for industrial application, also some other ideas are sketched, such as using electrospun nanofibers mats or layer-by-layer deposits as protection coatings, as well as sub-micrometer multilayer coatings as effective IR-mirrors. The general phenomena, inducing a flow limit in the pyrolysing melt and changing the fire residue, are identified in nanocomposites. Key experiments are performed such as quasi online investigation of the protection layer formation to understand what is going on in detail. The flame retardancy mechanisms are discussed and their impact on fire behaviour quantified. With the latter, the presentation pushes forward the state of the art. For instance, the heat shielding is experimentally quantified for a layered silicate epoxy resin nanocomposite proving that it is the only import mechanism controlling the reduction in peak heat release rate in the investigated system for different irradiations. The flame retardancy performance is assessed comprehensively illuminating not only the strengths but also the weak points of the concepts. Guidelines for materials development are deduced and discussed. Apart from inorganic fillers (layered silicate, boehmite, etc.) not only carbon nanoobjects such as multiwall carbon nanotubes, multilayer graphene and graphene are investigated, but also nanoparticles that are more reactive and harbor the potential for more beneficial interactions with the polymer matrix.