Effect of exposure to UV-C rays on fire retardancy and adherence of curable polymer resins for application in disinfection chambers

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the effect of UV-C radiation on two types of cured polymer resins, epoxy and polyester, intended for use in disinfection chambers. The exposure of the samples to UV-C rays lasted 168 h. Our evaluation covered two aspects: the effect of UV-C rays on the flammability and flame retardancy of the resins, and the effect of UV-C rays on the adhesion of the resins to the steel substrate. It was found that the applied halogen and halogen-free organophosphate agents can be used for the tested resins under UV-C conditions (e.g. disinfection chambers), and no negative impact of UV-C radiation on the performance of these flame retardants was found. The use of the tested types of resins in the form of thin coatings on a steel substrate is feasible in disinfection chambers under UV-C radiation conditions, as the obtained results indicate that the radiation did not affect the adhesion of the coating. The visible effect of UV-C radiation on both the tested resins was discoloration, giving yellow and brown colors. Our results suggest that further studies, probably involving longer UV-C exposure, would be advisable.KEYWORDS: UV-C radiationfire retardancycoat adhesionunsaturated polyester resinepoxy resindisinfection chamber AcknowledgmentsThe study was financed by the Department of Materials Technology at the Silesian University of Technology, within the frame of the statutory research grant No. 11/030/BK_23/1127 (BK-220/RM3/2023). The authors want to thank Marta Gwiaździńska and Izabela Polańska for technical support during the testing procedures.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Author contributionsM.K.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing; J.S.: Data curation, Investigation, Visualization; P.O.: Data curation, Investigation; B.M.: Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing; T.P.: Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing; W.W.: Investigation, Methodology, VisualizationAdditional informationFundingAuthors confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.