Micro-intumescent flame retardant polyamide 6 based on cyclic phosphate grafting phenol formaldehyde

In this paper, thermoplastic phenol formaldehyde (PF) grafted cyclic neopentyl phosphate (PFCP) was synthesized by using PF and 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-propanediol phosphoryl chloride. It was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 1H and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Compared to PF, PFCP shows improved thermal and thermoxidative stability and allows itself to be used in polyamide 6 (PA6). A micro-intumescent flame retardant system was constructed by using cyclic neopentyl phosphate as acid source, PF as charring agent and PA6 whose decomposition products work as blowing agent. The results showed that PA6/PFCP composite is classified the UL-94V-0 rating and get a LOI value of 35.5% at 25% loading of PFCP. SEM results showed that the outside of char residues is continuous and dense, but the inside is micro-intumescent and porous. XPS analysis of char revealed that most of phosphorus remained in the char layer. All the results suggest that the mode of flame retardant's action for PA6/PFCP composites is shifted from melting away to charring protection with the content of PFCP increasing. The coherent char generated by the decomposition of PFCP contributes most to flame retardancy of PA6. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.