Improvement of Flame Retardancy and Water Resistance of an Intumescent Flame Retardant Epoxy Resin system

Intumescent flame retardants (IFR) forms a carbonaceous char on the surface of polymer upon heating, which prevents the substrate polymer from the transfer of heat flux and the diffusion of inflammable gases. In this study in order to make a water resistance IFR system, we used surface modification technique for coating of Ammonium polyphosphate with polysiloxane(PS). Since APP is a mineral salt, it is incompatible with organic matrix. Polysiloxane coating on the APP particles supplied compatibility with Epoxy resin matrix. In this research we used FTIR spectroscopy in order to investigation of APP surface modified with PS (APPPS). For study on the flammability of samples, limited oxygen index (LOI) analysis was used. SEM study applied to surveying morphology of formed char layer on the surface of polymer. In addition to improvement of water resistance, results demonstrated that polysiloxane has been a synergistic effect on the flame retardancy of EP-resin

Keywords:

Polysiloxane , Water resistance , APP , Char layer , Flame Retardant