Flame retardancy and toughening modification of glass fiber-reinforced polycarbonate composites

Abstract

Different kinds of flame retardant and toughened glass fiber (GF)-reinforced polycarbonate composites were fabricated through melt extrusion blending and injection molding. Methacrylate-butadiene-styrene (MBS), styrene-maleic anhydride (SMA), ethylene methylacrylate (EMA), and silicon acrylate rubber (SiR) were used as toughness modifiers. Two kinds of aryl phosphorus, namely, triphenyl phosphate (TPP) and resorcinol bis(diphenyl phosphate) (RDP), and oligomeric siloxane-containing potassium dodecyl diphenylsulfone sulfonate (SiKSS) were adopted as flame retardants (FRs). The V-notched Izod impact test revealed that SiR could significantly improve the toughness of GF-reinforced polycarbonate composites. The flame retardancy of FR PC/GF/SiR composites was investigated by the UL-94 vertical burning test. The FR PC/GF/SiR composites showed good flame retardancy with a V0 rating when 9 wt% TPP, 6 wt% TPP/RDP, or 0.2 wt% SiKSS was added. The effect of the FRs on the mechanical properties, rheological properties and heat deflection temperature of PC/GF/SiR composites was also investigated. The toughness and flame retardancy of glass fiber (GF)-reinforced polycarbonate (PC) composites were tested by adding four impact modifiers and three kinds of flame reardants. Silicon acrylate rubber (SiR) could significantly toughen the composites by 2.52 times. Then only by addition of 0.2 wt% oligomeric siloxane-containing potassium dodecyl diphenylsulfone sulfonate (SiKSS), PC/GF/SiR composites can achieve good flame retardancy with a V0 rating in UL-94 burning vertical test. This formulation also maintained the system a relative high heat deflection temperature around 120 °C.