Preparation and Performance of Ecofriendly Epoxy/Multilayer Graphene Oxide Composites with Flame-Retardant Functional Groups

This study aimed to prepare ecofriendly flame retardants. Using the -OH and -COOH functional groups of multilayer graphene oxide (GO) for the hydrolytic condensation of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), TEOS was grafted onto GO to form Si-GO. Subsequently, p-aminophenol (AP) was grafted onto Si-GO to produce Si-GA, forming composite materials with epoxy (EP). The structures and properties of the composite materials were examined with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and the limiting oxygen index (LOI). In terms of structure, FTIR observed two characteristic peaks of Si-GO, namely Si-O-C and Si-O-Si, indicating that TEOS was successfully grafted onto GO. TGA was used to determine the thermal stability of the epoxy/Si-GA composites; with the increase in Si-GA, the char yield of the materials increased from 15.6 wt % (pure epoxy) to 25 wt % (epoxy/10 wt % Si-GA), indicating that Si-GA effectively enhanced the thermal stability of the epoxy matrix. Lastly, the flame retardant tests determined that the LOI value rose from 19% (pure epoxy) to 26% (epoxy/10 wt % Si-GA), proving that graphene with modified silicon can be used to enhance the flame retardancy of epoxy.