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Morphology-manipulated aluminum diethylphosphinate and flame-retardant properties in thermoplastic polyurethane

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Abstract

Rational design morphology of flame retardant is crucial to achieving a balance between satisfactory flame retardancy and superior mechanical properties. However, there are few studies focused on the morphology of flame retardants, and how to achieve the aim of satisfactory flame retardancy yet low mechanical properties loss is still a challenge. Herein, aluminum diethylphosphinate (ADP) with different morphologies were obtained through hydrothermal synthesis method via adjusting the releasing rate of Al3+, molar ratio (OH−: Al3+), and changing the type of acid. The morphology of ADP was successfully regulated from random (ADP-1), rod-like (ADP-2) to flower-like (ADP-3). The formation mechanism of different morphology was discussed in detail. The TG results indicated that all ADP have high thermal stability. Therefore, ADP as flame retardant was used for modification of TPU. Compared to neat TPU, TPU/ADP composites present lower initial decomposition temperature and higher char residual. With addition of 30% ADP-2 the LOI value increased from 22.5 to 28.0%, achieved the UL-94 V-2 rating, respectively. THR was 25.6% lower than that of virgin TPU, exhibiting higher fire safety performance. Meanwhile the tensile strength of TPU composite with ADP-2 (10.8 ± 0.4) is higher than that of the composites with ADP-1 (8.7 ± 0.9), and ADP-3 (7.9 ± 0.5) at content up to 30%. This work provides a promising strategy to tune the morphology of flame retardant and compromise the contradiction of poor mechanical properties with high fire safety of polymer composite.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52273044, 52373092), the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering (Sichuan University)(grant no. sklpme2023-3-4), the Key Research Program of Zhejiang Province (grant no. 2023C01101, 2023C01210, 2022C01049, 2022C01205, 2022C01228), and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (grant no. LY20E030008).

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  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Plastic Modification and Processing Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, PR China

    Baoli Huang, Meng Ma, Yueyin Wang, Si Chen, Yanqin Shi, Huiwen He & Xu Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, PR China

    Meng Ma

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Huang, B., Ma, M., Wang, Y. et al. Morphology-manipulated aluminum diethylphosphinate and flame-retardant properties in thermoplastic polyurethane. J Polym Res 30, 455 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-023-03839-8

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