Flame retardancy of polymers

In this study, a super-efficiently flame-retardant bioplastic-poly (lactic acid)-was developed by incorporating gas-solid biphase flame retardant, N, N’-Diallyl-P-phenylphosphonicdiamide (P-AA), into PLA matrix. The flame retardancy of PLA/P-AA was investigated by limiting oxygen index (LOI), vertical burning test (UL94) and cone calorimeter test. Surprisingly, it was noted that only 0.5 wt% loading of P-AA increased LOI value of PLA from 20.5 to 28.4 and passed UL 94 V-0 rating at 3.2 mm thickness. In order to understand the effect of P-AA on thermal decomposition behavior of PLA, a comprehensive study was investigated in this paper, including (i) adopting modified Coats-Redfern method to study the thermal decomposition kinetics of PLA and PLA/P-AA systems; (ii) characterizing the evolved gaseous products and the residues in the condense phase by thermogravimetry linked Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TGA–FTIR) and variable temperatures Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (VT-FTIR) techniques, respectively. Moreover, tensile properties of PLA and PLA/P-AA were studied.