Effect of a Novel Graphene on the Flame Retardancy and Thermal Degradation Behavior of Epoxy Resin

Abstract

The effect of graphene modified with a phosphorus and silicon-containing compound (GO-DOPO-V) on the flame retardancy and thermal stability of epoxy resin (EP) was studied by cone calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in nitrogen. After incorporation of 2 wt% GO-DOPO-V into EP, maximum decreases of 28.8% in peak heat release rate (pHRR) and 15.6% in total heat release (THR) were achieved compared to that of pure EP. It was shown that GO-DOPO-V significantly promoted the formation of an EP tight char layer and the char residue of EP/GO-DOPO-V composite at 600 °C was 13.39 wt%, which was almost twice that of pure EP. Furthermore, the non-isothermal degradation behavior of EP/GO-DOPO-V composites were investigated also in a nitrogen atmosphere. It was found that the addition of GO-DOPO-V changed the degradation behavior of EP composites in the early and middle stages. Both the Kissinger and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa methods revealed that the addition of GO-DOPO-V increased the thermal degradation activation energy of EP, and improved the flame retardancy of the polymer matrix.

Keywords:

• epoxy resin
• graphene oxide
• P/Si flame retardant
• thermal degradation

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Foundation (No. GZKF202127) of the State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, Qilu University of Technology, Shandong Academy of Sciences., Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Y20B060020) and the Open Fund of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Multiphase Materials Chemical Engineering.