The preparation process of new environmentally friendly flame retardants to endow epoxy resin (EP) with excellent flame retardancy and mechanical properties remains a challenging task. In this study, a novel Zeolite@DPA-Cu flame retardant was designed and prepared by a simple and environmentally friendly aqueous preparation process using zeolite, copper sulfate and diphenylphosphonic acid as main raw materials. As expected, Zeolite@DPA-Cu significantly improved the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of EP composites. The results showed that the LOI and UL-94 grade of the EP/5 wt% Zeolite@DPA-Cu composite reached 32.4 % and V-0 rating, respectively. The synergistic effect of the physical barrier, free radical capture and catalytic char formation of Zeolite@DPA-Cu significantly improved the flame retardancy of EP. In addition, due to the strong interfacial interaction between Zeolite@DPA-Cu and EP, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the EP were increased to 57.92 MPa and 4.7 %, respectively. Generally, this study proposed a modification strategy that takes into account both flame retardancy and mechanical properties, which is extremely important for the practical application of EP flame retardant materials.