Reaction of melamine phosphate with pentaerythritol and its products for flame retardation of polypropylene

Due to being halogen-free, non-toxic, non-erosive and environmentally friendly, melamine-based flame retardants are attracting more and more attention. As a melamine-based intumescent flame retardant, in this study the melamine salt of pentaerythritol phosphate (MPP) was prepared from melamine phosphate (MP) and pentaerythritol (PER). The reaction of MP with PER was then systematically investigated. The reaction product MPP was utilized to flame-retard polypropylene (PP). FT-IR, TGA and DSC were used to characterize MPP and also to investigate the reaction of MP and PER in depth. The experimental results show that MPP has good thermal stability and matched decomposition temperature with that of PP, making it suitable for flame retarding of PP. Also, MPP is melting-blendable due to its softening during the heating process. The structure of MPP at a MP:PER molar ratio of 2.0 was confirmed as the same to that of the product synthesized from phosphorus oxychloride, pentaerythritol and melamine. The reaction of NIP with PER was greatly influenced by the MP:PER proportion, reaction temperature and reaction time, rather than the physical state of PER, and the reaction mechanism of MP with PER was proposed. The prepared flame-retarded polypropylene composite with 35 wt% inturnescent flame-retardant MPP has a flame retarding level of 3.2 mm UL 94 V-0, tensile strength 27.0 MPa, Young's modulus 2442 MPa and Izod notched impact strength 3.8 kJ/m(2). Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.