A monomolecular organophosphate for enhancing the flame retardancy, thermostability and crystallization properties of polylactic acid

Abstract Polylactic acid (PLA) is regarded as one of the most promising bioplastics. However, its inherent high flammability of PLA seriously limits its application in the emerging fields. Although the traditional phosphate flame retardants showed excellent flame retardant efficiency in PLA, they often failed to meet the processing requirements of PLA and the thermal stability of PLA composites was decreased after their addition. Herein, an organophosphate flame retardant pentaerythritol bis(phenyl phosphonate) (PBPP) with high thermal stability and phosphorus content was synthesized by the nucleophilic substitution reaction in our laboratory. The introduction of PBPP simultaneously improved the flame retardancy, thermostability and crystallization properties of PLA. Only 3 wt% PBPP endowed PLA composites with UL‐94 V‐0 grade and higher LOI of 28.3% due to its excellent gas phase effect. Moreover, the crystallinity of PLA/PBPP4 was enhanced from 14.2% of PLA to 32.2% with the improvement of 127%. Because of the similar structure and good compatibility between organophosphate flame retardant and PLA matrix, flame retardant PLA/PBPP maintained almost the same strength as neat PLA. This study provided a novel way for the preparation of a high‐performance flame retardant PLA composites with excellent comprehensive properties and it was important to expand the application value of multifunctional PLA materials.