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Development of new sustainable inorganic flame retardant additive system for polyamide 6,6 with improved performance
Author(s) -
Belyamani Imane,
Otaigbe Joshua U.,
Fielding William R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.24012
Subject(s) - fire retardant , materials science , glass transition , polyamide , char , calorimetry , thermal stability , thermogravimetric analysis , cone calorimeter , chemical engineering , phosphate glass , composite material , polymer , pyrolysis , physics , optoelectronics , doping , engineering , thermodynamics
We report the effect of new sustainable inorganic phosphate glass (P‐glass) flame retardants for polyamide 6,6 (PA6,6). Three P‐glasses differing in chemical composition and glass transition temperature ( T g ) were prepared and their flame retardant effect on PA6,6 was studied by cone calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and SEM‐EDX. The effect of high and intermediate T g P‐glasses on the thermal stability of PA6,6 was negligible as compared to that of the low T g P‐glass due to the hygroscopic nature of the latter. However, the char formation was independent of the P‐glass composition and was observed to increase by 30% in the presence of P‐glass. The low T g P‐glass composition (i.e., ILT‐1) was found to be a promising flame retardant for PA6,6 at a concentration of up to 15% by weight. Cone calorimetry data showed that the ILT‐1 decreased both the peak heat release rate and the total heat amount released from the PA6,6/ILT‐1 hybrids, resulting in an efficient formation of a glassy char layer. In contrast to the intermediate and high T g P‐glasses of this study, SEM‐EDX indicated that the ILT‐1 P‐glass was well dispersed in the PA6,6 matrix to yield a typical droplet‐in‐matrix phase morphology in the melt‐blended binary immiscible P‐glass/PA6,6 hybrids. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:1741–1748, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers