What question did this study set out to answer?

This research aims to develop effective flame-retardant polymers using biobased acrylate monomers.

May 7, 2026

Design of Polymerizable N–P Synergistic Vanilloid Acrylates: Controlled RAFT Polymerization and Flame Retardancy

Key Points

This research aims to develop effective flame-retardant polymers using biobased acrylate monomers.
Synthesize biobased N–P synergistic vanillin-based acrylate monomers (MAPDVAs).
Polymerize MAPDVAs via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) to create PMAPDVA.
Evaluate flame-retardant properties and mechanisms using micro calorimeter tests and thermal analysis.
PMAPDVA exhibits a high residual carbon content (42.0 wt %) at 800 °C and low peak heat release rate (62.0 W/g).
Copolymerization with 30.0 mol % MAPDVA reduces peak heat release rate and total heat release by 33.8% and 42.7%, respectively.
The copolymer maintains over 80% light transmission in the visible range, demonstrating good transparency.

Abstract

The search for innovative and cost-effective flame-retardant polymers is attracting increasing interest in both the academics and industrial community. In this work, flame-retardant polymers with high performance are developed through a monomer-to-polymer strategy. Specifically, biobased N–P synergistic vanillin-based acrylate monomers (MAPDVAs) are designed and synthesized, which are then polymerized via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization to obtain a biobased polymer, namely, PMAPDVA. The obtained PMAPDVA (Mn,GPC = 39100 g/mol) has a high residual carbon content of about 42.0 wt % at 800 °C. The peak heat release rate (PHRR) of PMAPDVA is only 62.0 W/g in a micro calorimeter (MCC) test, confirming excellent flame-retardant efficiency. The PHRR and the total heat release rate (THR) of poly 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA) decreased by 33.8% and 42.7%, respectively, when 30.0 mol % MAPDVA was copolymerized. In addition, the copolymer coatings display light transmission more than 80% in the range of 380–780 nm, indicating fine transparency of the copolymer and satisfying compatibility of PMAPDVA. Finally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis infrared (TGA-IR) are applied to explore the flame-retardant mechanism of the resultant polymers. This work provides a key clue for the preparation of flame retardants from natural products.

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