Preparation of halogen free flame retardant polymer materials by reactive extrusion

Abstract

The reactive processing of polymers which combines the polymer processing and chemical reaction together, using polymer processing equipment to conduct the chemical reaction during the processing, so as to form new structure and new materials, and enhance polymer performances. This paper reviewed our research works on preparation of halogen-free flame retardant polymers materials by reactive extrusion in recent years. Taking advantages of the strong shear force, controllable temperature, and high efficiency in heat and mass transfer during twin-extruder extrusion, two halogen free flame retardants with high viscosity during synthesis, melamine salt of pentaerythritol phosphate (MPP) and melamine cyanurate (MCA), as well as the flame retardant polypropylene/MPP and polyamide 6/MCA with good comprehensive properties were successfully prepared. The involved chemical and physical processes were investigated. These results showed that reactive extrusion is an efficient, economic, environment-friendly and easily commercialized novel technology to prepare halogen free flame retardant polymer materials.