Synthesis of a novel modified chitosan as an intumescent flame retardant for epoxy resin

According to the concept of fire life cycle assessment (LCA), a new type of intumescent flame retardant was designed and synthesized by chemically bonding chitosan, phosphorus pentoxide and melamine. The resultant compound, chitosan ethoxyl melamine phosphate (CEMP), was characterized by FTIR, 1 H NMR, 31 P NMR, XRD and SEM. The performance of CEMP and organic montmorillonite (OMMT) was evaluated in the substrate of epoxy resin (EP) with limited oxygen index (LOI), UL-94, cone calorimetric test (CCT), TGA and TG-IR. As a result, intumescent flame retardant EP (EP3) containing 30.6% LOI and V-0 rating was prepared by adding 3 wt% OMMT and 15 wt% CEMP. The CCT results indicated that CEMP and OMMT reduced the peak of heat release rate (PHRR) to about one fourth that of pure EP and total heat release (THR), 1/2. Decomposition of EP and EP3 was traced from 100 to 600°C by TG-IR.