Comparative study of flame retardancy in polyimine vitrimers and composites: Evaluating additive and reactive flame retardants acting via gas-, solid-, and combined-phase mechanisms

We developed flame retarded polyimine type vitrimers and carbon fibre reinforced composites using two additive and a reactive flame retardant containing phosphorus: ammonium polyphosphate (APP), resorcinol bis(diphenyl phosphate) (RDP); and N,N',N''-tris(2-aminoethyl)-phosphoric acid triamide (TEDAP). We characterised the vitrimer matrix materials by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal analysis (TGA), limiting oxygen index (LOI), UL-94 test and mass loss calorimetry (MLC), while the vitrimer composites by LOI, UL-94 test, MLC and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). We compared the performance of the vitrimer systems to a benchmark pentaerythritol-based aliphatic epoxy resin system (PER). The vitrimer reference had higher thermal stability but lower fire performance than the PER aliphatic reference epoxy. At lower phosphorus content, the vitrimer systems exhibited a melting above their vitrimer transition temperature, which negatively affected their LOI and UL-94 results. From 2% phosphorus content, rapid charring and extinguishing of vitrimers prevented the softening and deforming. The superior performance of these same flame retardants in vitrimer systems could be attributed to the high nitrogen content of imine-based vitrimers in combination with phosphorus flame retardants, exploiting nitrogen-phosphorus synergism. In both matrices, flame retardants with solid phase action lead to better fire performance, while in composites, the lowest peak heat release rates (152 kW/m2 in vitrimer composite) were achieved with RDP acting predominantly in the gas phase, as carbon fibres hindered the intumescent phenomenon.