Thermal stability and fire behavior of aluminum diethylphosphinate-epoxy resin nanocomposites

The flame retardancy of 2, 2-bis(4-glycidyloxyphenyl)propane (DGEBA)-aluminum diethylphosphinate (AlPi) nanocomposites (EP-AlPi/(P − x), x = 1, 2, 3 %) was greatly enhanced by ultrasonic dispersion of nano-sized AlPi into epoxy resin. The UL 94 V-0 rating can be reached for EP-AlPi nanocomposites with a relatively low addition amount of AlPi (on the account of 8.4 wt% or phosphorus content of 2 wt%) as well as the LOI value over 37.2. The glass transition temperature (T _g) enhanced properties were investigated by DTA, which showed that: T _gs were about 5 °C higher than that of neat epoxy resin; T _g increased along with content increasing of AlPi. Based on TGA results under a non-isothermal condition, the thermal degradation kinetics of EP-AlPi/(P − x) composites were studied by Kissinger’s, Ozawa’s, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa’s and Coast-Redfern’s methods, which suggested the conversion function f (α) = 1/2α ⁻¹ or f (α) = [−ln(1 − α)]⁻¹ for EP-AlPi/(P − 1 %); f (α) = [−ln(1 − α)]⁻¹ for EP-AlPi/(P − 2 %) and EP-AlPi/(P − 3 %) during the investigated process. The epoxy resin nanocomposites obtained in this study are green functional polymers and will become flame retardant potential candidates in electronic fields such as printed wiring boards with high performance.