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An effective strategy to enhance the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of epoxy resin by using hyperbranched flame retardant

  • Polymers & biopolymers
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Abstract

Hyperbranched flame retardant containing P/N/Si/B and rigid–flexible structure (PTDOB) was synthesized and used to prepare high-performance epoxy resin with simultaneous improvement in both fire-safety and mechanical properties. The optimal flame-retardant epoxy thermosets show a self-extinguishing behavior, along with a 47.1% decrease in peak heat release rate, 17.3% decrease in total smoke production compared with neat epoxy resin. More importantly, the obtained flame-retardant epoxy thermosets exhibit superior mechanical properties with 55.4% and 37.5% increase in impact strength and flexural strength, respectively, indicating the incorporation of PTDOB has a good effect on flame retardancy, as well as on mechanical properties simultaneously. Flame retardancy mechanisms of both condensed-phase retardance with a barrier char and gas-phase retardance with incombustible gases provided from the hyperbranching architecture of PTDOB have been well demonstrated. The study guarantees PTDOB to be a promising additive for the development of high-performance epoxy resin with attractive potential applications.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21805036, 21903015), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant No. 2019J01668).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Mingfeng Chen, Xiuhuang Lin, Canpei Liu & Huagui Zhang

  2. Fujian Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Mingfeng Chen, Xiuhuang Lin, Canpei Liu & Huagui Zhang

  3. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced, Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Mingfeng Chen, Xiuhuang Lin, Canpei Liu & Huagui Zhang

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  1. Mingfeng Chen
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  2. Xiuhuang Lin
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Correspondence to Mingfeng Chen or Huagui Zhang.

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Chen, M., Lin, X., Liu, C. et al. An effective strategy to enhance the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of epoxy resin by using hyperbranched flame retardant. J Mater Sci 56, 5956–5974 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05691-3

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