Influence of aliphatic epoxy monomer on the blowing-out effect in the flame retardant epoxy resins

An aliphatic epoxy monomer “polypropyleneglycol-diglycidylether (PPGDGE, YF878)” is loaded in the epoxy resins (EP) to evaluate the influence of epoxy structure on the blowing-out effect, which is caused by 9, 10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) and octaphenyl silsesquioxane (OPS). The flame retarding properties of these EP composites were tested using the LOI and UL-94 procedures. The pyrolytic gases produced and the thermal stability of the EP composites with different flame retardants were detected by TGA-FTIR in air. The negative effect of YF878 was detected from the TTI, HRR, and p-HRR results after the cone calorimeter test. The char produced by the EP composites after the cone calorimeter test was investigated by FTIR. It is proposed that the aliphatic chain of the YF878 is easy to break down and produce combustible gases, so it does not easily form a crosslinked structure in the condensed phase. These results are very helpful for investigation of the conditions under which the blowing-out effect in epoxy resins can be caused by synergy of phosphorous and silicon.