Nie SB, Song L, Bao CL, Qian XD, Guo YQ, Hong NN, Hu Y (2011) Synergistic effects of ferric pyrophosphate (FePP) in intumescent flame-retardant polypropylene. Polymers for Advanced Technologies 22(6), 870-876. [In English]

Web link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pat.1590

Keywords:

polypropylene, ferric pyrophosphate, intumescent flame-retardant (IFR), synergistic effect, ammonium polyphosphate, thermal-degradation, pentaerythritol, polymers, terpolymer, mixtures, systems, agent, xps

Abstract: Ferric pyrophosphate (FePP) was added to an ammonium polyphosphate (APP)-pentaerythritol (petol) intumescent flame retardant (IFR) system in polypropylene (PP) matrix, with subsequent investigation into the synergistic effect between FePP and the IFRs. Limited oxygen index (LOI), UL-94 test and cone calorimeter test were employed to study the flame retardance of the synthesized flame retardant PP composites. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermogravimetric analysis-infrared spectrometry (TG-IR) were used to study their thermal degradation characteristics and gas products. TG-IR results demonstrate that there is no Fe (CO)(5) produced from PP/IFR/FePP system, which implies that the flame retardant mechanism of PP/IFR/FePP system is in the condensed phase rather than in the gas phase. Real time FTIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to monitor the thermal oxidative stability and the high temperature performance of the flame retardant PP composites. The real time FTIR spectra show that all peaks around 2900 cm(-1) almost disappear at 380 degrees C for the PP/IFR system, meaning that PP decomposes completely at this temperature. But after the addition of 2 wt% wt% FePP, the peaks still exist till 400 degrees C. XPS shows that the aliphatic carbon atom content in PP/23 wt% wt% IFR/2 wt% wt% FePP (63.8%) is much higher than the one without FePP, and the total oxygen atom content in PP/23 wt% wt% IFR/2 wt% wt% FePP is just 19.1%, while the one in PP/25 wt% IFR is as high as 35.7%. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley &, Sons, Ltd.