Hollow Silica/PUU Composites for Flame Retardancy and Blast Mitigation: From Shock Tube to In Vivo Protection
- 1Chongqing Jiaotong University , , ,
- 2Army Medical University , , ,
Abstract
Blast shock waves and the resulting thermal burns from secondary fires are among the primary causes of casualties in explosions, underscoring the significance of developing protective materials that simultaneously deliver efficient shock wave attenuation and flame retardancy. Herein, a flame-retardant polyurethane-urea (PUU) elastomer was synthesized via molecular structure engineering and subsequently reinforced with hollow silica microspheres (HSM), yielding PUU composites. The PUU matrix attained a limiting oxygen index of 31.15%, demonstrating self-extinguishing capability. Shock tube tests revealed that the PUU composite with 10 wt % HSM (PUU10S) achieved an attenuation rate of 75%, the excellent attenuation performance originates from continuously distributed impedance mismatch interfaces established by the microspheres, coupled with microsphere debonding and wave path redirection under shock loading. Rat blast protection evaluation directly confirmed the protective efficacy, as the PUU10S-protected group exhibited a reduction in pulmonary injury area from 91.03% to 33.94%, recovery of the lung wet-to-dry ratio from 6.91 to 4.70, and a decrease in 6 h mortality from 50% to 8.3% relative to the unprotected cohort. This study provides a promising strategy for reconciling flame retardancy and blast resistance in a single polyurea-based material: the intrinsically flame-retardant PUU matrix retains its self-extinguishing character upon HSM incorporation, albeit with a moderate reduction in tensile strength and toughness, while the hollow-microsphere architecture delivers a reduction in transmitted peak pressure and a marked reduction of blast-induced pulmonary injury in rats, establishing a foundation spanning materials design to biological protective validation for next-generation high-performance composite protective materials.
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BibTeX
@article{huang2026hollow,
title = {{Hollow Silica/PUU Composites for Flame Retardancy and Blast Mitigation: From Shock Tube to In Vivo Protection}},
author = {Deming Huang and Jintao Xu and Zeng Huang and Juan Du and Zhuangqing Fan and Chu Gao and Ling Zeng and Jianxin Jiang and Hongwei Ruan and Anqiang Zhang},
journal = {ACS Omega},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/acsomega.6c08935},
url = {https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/11/41/64053/5447638/Hollow-Silica-PUU-Composites-for-Flame-Retardancy},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hollow Silica/PUU Composites for Flame Retardancy and Blast Mitigation: From Shock Tube to In Vivo Protection
AU - Deming Huang
AU - Jintao Xu
AU - Zeng Huang
AU - Juan Du
AU - Zhuangqing Fan
AU - Chu Gao
AU - Ling Zeng
AU - Jianxin Jiang
AU - Hongwei Ruan
AU - Anqiang Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
JO - ACS Omega
DO - 10.1021/acsomega.6c08935
UR - https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/11/41/64053/5447638/Hollow-Silica-PUU-Composites-for-Flame-Retardancy
AB - Blast shock waves and the resulting thermal burns from secondary fires are among the primary causes of casualties in explosions, underscoring the significance of developing protective materials that simultaneously deliver efficient shock wave attenuation and flame retardancy. Herein, a flame-retardant polyurethane-urea (PUU) elastomer was synthesized via molecular structure engineering and subsequently reinforced with hollow silica microspheres (HSM), yielding PUU composites. The PUU matrix attained a limiting oxygen index of 31.15%, demonstrating self-extinguishing capability. Shock tube tests revealed that the PUU composite with 10 wt % HSM (PUU10S) achieved an attenuation rate of 75%, the excellent attenuation performance originates from continuously distributed impedance mismatch interfaces established by the microspheres, coupled with microsphere debonding and wave path redirection under shock loading. Rat blast protection evaluation directly confirmed the protective efficacy, as the PUU10S-protected group exhibited a reduction in pulmonary injury area from 91.03% to 33.94%, recovery of the lung wet-to-dry ratio from 6.91 to 4.70, and a decrease in 6 h mortality from 50% to 8.3% relative to the unprotected cohort. This study provides a promising strategy for reconciling flame retardancy and blast resistance in a single polyurea-based material: the intrinsically flame-retardant PUU matrix retains its self-extinguishing character upon HSM incorporation, albeit with a moderate reduction in tensile strength and toughness, while the hollow-microsphere architecture delivers a reduction in transmitted peak pressure and a marked reduction of blast-induced pulmonary injury in rats, establishing a foundation spanning materials design to biological protective validation for next-generation high-performance composite protective materials.
SN - 2470-1343
ER -