Flammability Studies of Polymer Layered Silicate Nanocomposites: Polyolefin, Epoxy, and Vinyl Ester Resins.
Flammability Studies of Polymer Layered Silicate
Nanocomposites: Polyolefin, Epoxy, and Vinyl Ester
Resins.
(1228 K)
Gilman, J. W.; Kashiwagi, T.; Nyden, M. R.; Brown, J. E.
T.; Jackson, C. L.; Lomakin, S. M.; Giannelis, E. P.;
Manias, E.
Chemistry and Technology of Polymer Additives. Chapter
14. 1999, Blackwell Science Inc., Malden, MA,
Ak-Malaika, S.; Golovoy, A.; Wilkie, C. A.,
Editor(s)(s), 249-265 pp, 1999.
Keywords:
nanocomposites; polyolefins; epoxy resins; vinyl resins;
flammability; fire retardants; cone calorimeters; heat
release rate; char formation; thermal analysis
Abstract:
In the pursuit of improved approaches to fire retarding
polymers a wide variety of concerns must be addressed,
in addition to the flammability issues. For commodity
polymers the low cost of these materials requires that
the fire retardant (FR) approach also be of low cost.
This limits solutions to the problem primarily to
additive type approaches. These additives must be low
cost and easily processed with the polymer. In
addition, any additive must not excessively degrade the
other performance properties of the polymer, and it must
not create environmental problems in terms of recycling
or disposal of the final product. Polymer layered
silicate (PLS) nanocomposites are materials that may
fulfil the above requirements for a high performance
flame retardant. PLS nanocomposites are hybrid organic
polymer-inorganic materials with unique properties when
compared with conventional filled polymers. For
example, the mechanical properties of a nylon-6
layered-silicate nanocomposite, with a silicate mass
fraction of only 5%, show excellent improvement over
those for the pure nylon 6. The nanocomposite exhibits
a 40% higher tensile strength, 68% greater tensile
modulus, 60% higher flexural strength, and a 126%
increased flexural modulus. The heat distortion
temperature (HDT) is increased from 65C to 152C. In
some cases, increased thermal stability, an important
property for improving flammability performance, as well
as decreased gas permeability, and increased solvent
resistance accompany the improved physical properties.
We have reported on the flammability properties of
delaminated nylon 6 layered silicate nanocomposites and
intercalated polymer layered-silicate nanocomposites
prepared from polystyrene (PS) and
polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA). Here,
we will briefly review these results and report on our
initial studies of the flammability of thermoset PLS
nanocomposites: intercalated vinyl ester silicate and
intercalated epoxy silicate nanocomposites.
