Preparation of Flame Retardant Polystyrene via In-Situ Bulk Polymerization Method and Evaluation of its Flammability Properties

Abstract

In this study, in-situ bulk polymerization was investigated for obtaining flame retardant polystyrene (PS). The halogenated and phosphoric compounds were used as flame retardant additives and Perkadox 30 was used as a synergist. The flammability of the PS was evaluated by thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), limiting oxygen index (LOI) and UL-94 tests. The results show that polymerization process for production of flame retardant polystyrene needs lower amount of flame retardant additives compare with the process for production of flame retardant composites. Furthermore, using Perkadox 30 as a synergist lowers the loading of flame retardant additives. LOI tests show that flame retardant polystyrene synthesized by adding at least 0.35 % (w/w) hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) during polymerization. TGA analysis confirms that with addition of HBCD the degradation temperature decreases and weight loss occurs quickly. The degradation tempresure of the sample consist of 0.8 % (w/w) HBCD was lower than the sample consist of 0.35 % (w/w) HBCD and 0.45 % (w/w) triphenylphosphate (TPP). The pure polystyrene didn't pass the UL-94 test because of inflammability and greater dripping. For samples with HBCD, shorter time needed to quench the flame and these samples passed the UL-94 test. On the other hand, greater dripping of polymer melt led to transmission of UL-94 rate from V0 to V2. It is also observed that flaming rate for samples with TPP was very low and dripping didn't occur.