Recent developments in the chemistry of halogen-free flame retardant polymers

An overview of the recent literature on combustion and flame-retardancy of epoxy resins is presented. A brief overview of the structures of cured epoxy resins is also presented as a background for better understanding of the thermal decomposition and combustion phenomena. The literature sources were mostly taken from the publications of 1995 and later; however, for basic descriptions of the structural and thermal decomposition principles, older publications are also cited. New developments in flame-retardant additives, epoxy monomers and curing agents are described. It is shown that the main attention in recent years has been focused on phosphorus-containing epoxy monomers and epoxy resins. Silicon-containing or nitrogen-containing products and inorganic additives remain of great interest as supplementary materials to phosphorus flame-retardants. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry

Thermal decomposition, combustion and flame-retardancy of epoxy resins—a review of the recent literature

Modification of epoxy resins with functional silanes, polysiloxanes, silsesquioxanes, silica and silicates

Standard research protocols were developed to explore the use of octahedral silsesquioxane (cube) organic/inorganic nanocomposites as model systems for determining nanostructure−processing−property relationships to demonstrate that nanoscale structural manipulation of the organic component can significantly change macroscale physical properties. Comparison of octaglycidyldimethylsiloxyoctasilsesquioxane [(glycidyl-Me2SiOSiO1.5)8] (OG)/diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) and octa(ethylcyclohexylepoxide)dimethylsiloxy silsesquioxane (OC)/DDM nanocomposite resins provide the first demonstration that well-defined nanostructures can be formed wherein linear organic tethers of known structure join only two cube vertices. HF dissolution of cubes followed by GPC analysis demonstrates that only linear tethers form in OC/DDM. TEM studies suggest that these nanocomposites are homogeneous at the nanometer scale, thus supporting the chemical analysis studies. The physical properties of these nanocomposites were then systemat...

Organic/inorganic hybrid composites from cubic silsesquioxanes. Epoxy resins of octa(dimethylsiloxyethylcyclohexylepoxide) silsesquioxane

Epoxy resins possessing flame retardant elements from silicon incorporated epoxy compounds cured with phosphorus or nitrogen containing curing agents

A new silicon-containing oxirane triglycidyl phenyl silane oxide (TGPSO) and its corresponding silicon-containing epoxy resins are synthesized and characterized. The activation energies of TGPSO curing reaction with various curing agents, including 4,4-diaminodiphenylmethane, 4,4-diaminodiphenylsulfone, and dicyanodiaminde, are found to be 180, 196.5, and 154 kJ/mol. The curing reaction of TGPSO with diamines is determined to be a first-order reaction through means of Arrhenius plots. The introduction of the silicon-containing group results in higher curing reactivity. This silicon-containing resin possesses higher char yield as well as higher limiting oxygen index (LOI = 35) than the commercial epoxy resins, confirming the usefulness of these silicon-containing epoxy resins as flame retardants. Char yields and LOI measurements demonstrate that incorporating silicon into epoxy resins is able to improve their flame retardancy. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 1231–1238, 1999

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/31154/1/000080550900018.pdf

Feng-Chih ChangSupSup

Papers

Synthesis, characterization, thermal and flame‐retardant properties of silicon‐based epoxy resins