Flame retardant effect of boron compounds on red phosphorus containing epoxy resins

Abstract

The effect of zinc borate (ZnB), boric acid (BA) and boric oxide (B 2 O 3 ) was studied on the flame retardant and thermal stability properties of epoxy resin containing red phosphorus (RP). The flame retardancy of epoxy based composites was investigated using limiting oxygen index (LOI), UL-94 standard, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), mass loss calorimeter, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and attenuated total reflectance – fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The addition of 15 wt% RP based flame retardant additive increased the LOI value from 19.5 to 32.5 and V0 rating was obtained from UL-94 test. According to flammability properties, the maximum adjuvant effect was observed at ratio of 9:1 (RP:boron compounds) with the addition of ZnB and BA and at a ratio of 7:3 with the addition of B 2 O 3 . With the partial substitution of boron compounds for RP, lower heat release rate (HRR) and total heat evolved (THE) was obtained. According to fire performances, ZnB containing composite showed lowest HRR and THE values. The boron compounds showed beneficial effect by increasing char yield in the condensed phase.