Bio-based adenosine triphosphate pillared layered double hydroxide for enhancing flame retardancy of polypropylene

A novel and bio-based adenosine triphosphate (ATP) pillared MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDHs-ATP) was fabricated via calcination-reconstruction, followed by the incorporation of a highly efficient flame retardant into polypropylene (PP). The XRD result indicated that the interlayer channel of LDHs-ATP was increased to 16.6 Å. Indeed, the increase of the LDHs-ATP interlayer spacing promoted the uniform dispersion and thermal stability, which were further proved by the SEM and TG-DTG results. As expected, the PP/LDHs-ATP composite reached a LOI value of 29.1% and created a UL-94 V-0 rating with only 20 wt% LDHs-ATP loading. Furthermore, CCT illustrated that the peak heat release rate (PHRR), total heat release (THR) and total smoke release (TSR) of PP/LDHs-ATP composite exhibited a series of decreases of 55.9%, 39.5% and 56.4%, respectively, compared with that of Neat PP.