JOURNAL OF POLYMER ENGINEERING

Vol. 22, No. 5, 2002, page 341

A FURTHER STUDY ON NEW HALOGEN-FREE FLAME-RETARDED THERMOSETS

A.D. La Rosa, O. Motta and A. Recca

Department of Physical and Chemical Methodology for Engineering

University of Catania, v. le A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy

ABSTRACT

 The present work is a further development of a study already started on modified epoxy/polyester systems /1/. In previous studies, attempts to incorporate covalently bonded phosphorous atoms in epoxy resins were carried out in our laboratory. Neat panels and glass-fibre (GF) reinforced composites were prepared using halogen-free flame-retardant (FR) additives. These materials were tested on a cone calorimeter apparatus in order to evaluate the heat release rate (HRR) and the ignition time values for each FR formulation. LOI and UL94 tests were carried out. In the present paper, red phosphorous (Red P) together with aluminium oxide trihydrate (ATH) and glass fibre (GF) was found to be a good substitutive formulation to replace halogen based FR-additives.

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