Highly Effective Flame Retardancy of a Novel DPPA-Based Curing Agent for DGEBA Epoxy Resin

The flame retardancy, thermal, and mechanical properties of the cured epoxy resins are difficult to be simultaneously improved. In the present work, a novel DPPA-based curing agent, 10-[(4-hydroxyphenyl)(4-hydroxyphenylimino)methyl]-5,10-dihydrophenophosphazine 10-oxide (H-DPPA), is successfully synthesized to serve as a co-curing agent of 4, 4′-diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) for bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) epoxy resin. With the aid of 3.0 wt % of H-DPPA, the cured epoxy resin, in which the phosphorus content is as low as 0.22%, passes V-0 rating of UL-94 test with limiting oxygen index (LOI) of 31.8%. The high flame retardancy of epoxy resin modified by H-DPPA originated mainly from the formation of intumescent char layer during combustion. This new type of flame retardant containing both phosphine oxide structure and nitrogen moieties provides epoxy resins with excellent integrated performances.