Abstract
Poly(butylene succinate) is one of the most promising biodegradable polymers, but its applications are limited by poor flame retardancy. In this work, poly(butylene succinate)/diethylphosphinate (PBS/AlPi) composites were fabricated to investigate the effect of AlPi on their thermal stability, flame retardancy, and mechanical properties. It was found that the high content of AlPi decreased the thermal stability of PBS, and the decrease became stronger under the air atmosphere. When the content of AlPi reached 25wt%, the flame retardancy was improved with limited oxygen index (LOI) of 29.5%, V0 rating in UL-94 vertical burning test, and 49.3% reduction on the peak of heat release rate (PHRR) in cone calorimeter test. Meanwhile, the addition of AlPi could improve the mechanical properties of PBS with high tensile strength and Young’s modulus, which was ascribed to the compatible effect of maleic anhydride-grafted poly(butylene succinate) (PBS-g-MA) with good filler dispersion and strong matrix-particles interaction. Thus, the AlPi was an effective flame retardant to PBS, so that PBS/AlPi composites displayed excellent flame retardancy without seriously sacrificing other comprehensive performances.
Highlights
In the last decade, biodegradable polymers have drawn particular attention due to their advantages of biodegradability, good mechanical properties, easy processing, and chemical resistance (Chen et al, 2017; Chen Y. et al, 2019; Delamarche et al, 2020; He W. et al, 2020; Li et al, 2018; Xiong et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2019; Yang et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2020)
For PBS5AlPi, T5wt% and T10wt% decreased less than 1°C in comparison with that of neat poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), indicating that the addition of aluminum diethylphosphinate (AlPi) with low content has a small impact on the thermal stability of PBS
The decrease on T5wt%, T10wt%, and Tmax1 was ascribed to the thermal degradation of PBS during melt compounding because the increase in viscosity with high content of inorganic fillers could result in the sharp rise of temperature under high shear force, promoting the thermal degradation polymer (Fong et al, 2021)
Summary
Biodegradable polymers have drawn particular attention due to their advantages of biodegradability, good mechanical properties, easy processing, and chemical resistance (Chen et al, 2017; Chen Y. et al, 2019; Delamarche et al, 2020; He W. et al, 2020; Li et al, 2018; Xiong et al, 2019; Xu et al, 2019; Yang et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2020). Our previous work (Chen et al, 2016) has confirmed that the least amount of Mg(OH) was 40wt% in the PBS system to reach the V0 rating in the UL-94 vertical burning test These results indicated that both of them are not high-efficiency flame retardants for PBS. The current research aimed to investigate the effect of AlPi on thermal stability, flame retardancy and mechanical properties of PBS composites. The flame retardant mechanism was discussed by analyzing the action of AlPi on the gas phase and condensed phase Their mechanical properties were studied by tensile and impact tests. Aluminum diethylphosphinate (AlPi) was provided by Qingdao Fuslin Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. Maleic anhydride-grafted poly(butylene succinate) (PBS-g-MA) was synthesized via reactive melt-grafting process according to previous literature. At least five runs for each sample were measured and averaged
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