Crop residue burning is one of the major sources of particulate matter (PM) in the air. The burning behaviors and PM emissions of the three typical crop residues (rice straw, wheat straw, corn straw) in China were characterized by a cone calorimeter (CONE) coupled with a laser dust meter. The water-soluble compounds, carbonaceous content, and morphology of PM were measured by ion chromatography, elemental analyzer, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). The results showed that thermal stability of corn straw was the worst among the three crop straws. The heat release rate (HRR) curves of the three crop straws were the typical curves of thermally thick charring (residue forming) samples. Wheat straw had the highest smoke yield, which was 2.9 times that of rice straw. The PM emission factor of wheat straw was 180.91 µg/g, which was about three times that of rice straw. The contents of K⁺, Na⁺, and Cl⁻ in PM were significantly higher than those of the other six water-soluble inorganic ions. The ratio of organic carbon and elemental carbon (OC/EC) ranged from 14.82 to 30.82, which was similar to the results of open burning. There were mainly three kinds of aggregates in the PM of crop straws: network, chain-like, and soot. Individual particles were mixtures of KCl and organic matters. Core-shell structures were found in PM of rice straw and corn straw. The results in this study were provided based on CONE, an ISO-standard apparatus, which could avoid data conflicts caused by the difference of combustion devices. The relationship between the burning behavior and PM emission characteristics of crop straws was established, which is helpful to understand emissions of crop straws and to find a novel way to solve the problems from the burning of crop residues.

Surface cracking is a major issue in amino resin-based flame-retardant coatings, which can be reduced by mixing flexible resins into the coatings. In this study, flexible waterborne polyurethane (WPU) was added into a melamine-modified, urea-formaldehyde, resin-based intumescent flame retardant (MUF-IFR) coating. A molecular chain of WPU was inserted into the MUF network and formed a WPU/MUF-semi-IPN structure. The cracking resistance of the coating was gradually enhanced with the increase in WPU content. When the WPU content exceeded 25% of the total resin, there were no cracks in the coatings after crack-resistance tests. The coatings before and after toughening showed good transparency on wood surfaces. The influence of WPU on char formation and flame retardant properties were explored by TGA, SEM, and cone calorimetry. The results showed that the decomposition of WPU occurred before char formation, which decreased the integrity of the coating and damaged the compactness of the char. Therefore, the addition of WPU reduced the expansion height and the barrier capacity of the char as well as the flame retardant properties of the coating. When the amount of WPU was 25% of the total resin, compared to the non-WPU coating, the average heat release rate in 300 s (AveHRR_300s) and the total heat release at 300 s (THR_300s) of the samples were increased by 45.8% and 35.7%, respectively. However, compared to the naked wood, the peak heat release rate (pHRR₁), AveHRR_300s, and THR_300s of the samples with the coating containing 25% WPU were decreased by 64.2%, 39.0%, and 39.7%, respectively. Therefore, the thermal stability of WPU affected char formation. The amount of WPU added should be chosen to be the amount that was added just before the coating cracked.

Intumescent flame-retardant (IFR) coatings have been gaining more attention. The behaviors of intumescent char in IFR coatings play the most important role in its flame-retardant properties. However, the evolution of intumescent char throughout the whole process of protection is still unclear. In this study, both the formation and shrinkage of char were studied. The formulation of IFR includes melamine modified urea-formaldehyde resin (MUF), ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and pentaerythritol (PER). The flame-retardant properties of the coating were measured by the cone calorimeter (CONE). The evolution of the volume and the pore size distribution of char were monitored. The morphological and chemical structures were characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that the evolution of intumescent char could be divided into three stages. More than 50% shrinkage of char occurs in the second stage. There are obvious transformations of the morphological and chemical structures of char between the different stages.