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A novel ceramifiable epoxy composite with enhanced fire resistance and flame retardance

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Abstract

A novel epoxy composite with flame retardance and fire resistance was prepared by adding silicate glass frit (SGF) and ammonium polyphosphate (APP) into the epoxy resin. In the combustion test, epoxy composites displayed obvious flame retardance feature, showing much lower heat release rate, total heat release and total smoke production than epoxy resin. The composite residue formed at 900 °C had a flexural strength of 19.05 MPa. In addition, possible mechanisms for the phase separation and crystallization reactions at high temperatures were also investigated in detail through thermogravimetric analyzer, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, and scanning electron microscopy. It was suggested that phosphorus element tends to migrate to the surface of the composite residue during firing process, and sodium element from SGF is selectively combined with the phosphorus element to obtain crystalline phases. With this unique phase separation and crystallization reactions, the fire resistance of the epoxy composite was significantly improved.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51703096), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018M64229), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and Industry Foresight and Generic Key Technology of Suqian (H201816).

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  1. Dong Zhao and Wei Liu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Dong Zhao, Wei Liu, Yucai Shen & Tingwei Wang

  2. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Inorganic Function Composites, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Dong Zhao, Wei Liu & Yucai Shen

  3. Suqian Advanced Materials Institute of Nanjing Tech University, Suqian, 223800, China

    Tingwei Wang

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  1. Dong Zhao
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Correspondence to Yucai Shen or Tingwei Wang.

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Zhao, D., Liu, W., Shen, Y. et al. A novel ceramifiable epoxy composite with enhanced fire resistance and flame retardance. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 181–193 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10200-4

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