Impact of Leather on the Fire Resistance of Leather-Wood Fibreboard: FT-IR Spectroscopy and Pyrolysis-GC-MS Investigation

Leather-wood fibreboards are innovative composite materials, which combine together the high mechanical properties of wood with the superior fire behaviour properties of leather. /is study deals with the understanding of the combustion mechanism of the wet-white leather panel. During burning, an overlay coating-like surface is formed on top of a foamy structure that creates the heat transfer barrier./e FT-IR spectroscopy results of the leather show the rearrangement of the proteins and the formation of an increasing amount of acid groups when the exposure to hot gun at over 530°C was prolonged. /ese acid moieties can react with amino groups of other peptide chains, building a protective polymer network which hinders the oxygen to reach the core of the panel. Simultaneously, the gases produced during rearrangement cannot easily leave the material, producing a foamy structure which slows down the heat transfer to the core of the material. /e Py-GC-MS analysis shows that the gases produced by the wetwhite leather-type protein-based boards were amino-aromatic compounds like the diketopiperazine (DKP), which do not burn easily. /e combination of the effects of (i) formation of the overlay coating-like surface, (ii) establishment of the foamy structure, and (iii) degassing of DKP explains the outstanding fire properties of leather and wood-leather fibreboards.