Preparation of a Novel Phosphorus–Nitrogen-Containing Flame Retardant by Supramolecular Reaction and its Application in Epoxy Resin

Piperazine hexahydrate (PI) and diethylenetriamine penta(methylene phosphonic acid) (DTPMP) are used to synthesize flame-retardant PI-DTPMP through supramolecular reaction. The incorporation of PI-DTPMP simultaneously improves the mechanical and flame-retardant properties of epoxy resin (EP). With only 5 wt% loading of PI-DTPMP, EP composites show excellent flame retardancy with a limiting oxygen index (LOI) of 36.4% and V-0 rating in the UL-94 test. The cone calorimetric test results demonstrates that the peak heat release rate, total heat release, and total smoke release of EP/5%PI-DTPMP are reduced by 44.9%, 34.7%, and 37.7% compared with that of neat EP, respectively, owing to the formation of compact and insulating char layer during combustion. Moreover, EP/PI-DTPMP composites show enhanced mechanical properties with the improved tensile and impact strength, as well as higher storage modulus, crosslink densities, and glass-transition temperatures in dynamic mechanical analysis.