Melamine cyanurate tailored by base and its multi effects on flame retardancy of polyamide 6

In this paper, nitrogenous bases adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and uracil (U), were used to tailor the hydrogen-bonded network of melamine cyanurate (MCA) and were noted as A-MCA, G-MCA, C-MCA, U-MCA, respectively. The results showed that the size, morphology and thermal behavior of MCA are regulated by base due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between them. These modified MCAs were used to improve the flame retardancy of polyamide 6 (PA6) which was evaluated by using the limiting oxygen index (LOI) and the vertical burning (UL-94) test, etc. The results showed that the PA6 sample containing 9 wt% C-MCA achieves the UL-94 V-0 rating and has a LOI value of 30.7%, while the other samples with equal amounts of MCA only pass the UL-94 V-2 rating. The flame retardant mechanism was studied, and the results reveal that C-MCA with smaller size has greater contact area with PA6 which helps to catalyze the decomposition of PA6; Thus the PA6/C-MCA releases more NH 3 , CO 2 etc., and produces more droplets than others, which dilutes combustible gas and takes away heat to make the samples extinguish.