Synergistic fire retardancy of melamine resin modified with pentaerythritol and ammonium polyphosphate in PP

Abstract The synergistic fire retardancy of modified melamine resin with pentaerythritol (MF‐PER, a novel green and effective triazine charring agent), and ammonium polyphosphate (APP) in polypropylene was investigated by UL‐94 test, LOI measurement, and cone calorimetry test. It is found that the synergism of MF‐PER is obviously better than pentaerythritol (PER). MF‐PER/APP imparts a fire retardancy mainly by the following mode: in burning process, MF‐PER, and APP are first pyrolyzed respectively into polyols and polyphosphoric acid, which is esterified to form phosphoric ester, and the inert gases make the molten residues foaming; When the temperature increases, and polyphosphoric acid is dehydrated to polymetaphosphoric acid, which dehydrates phosphoric ester to form an intumescent char layer, inducing a fire retardant effect by barrier effect. The graphitization degree of the cone calorimetry test residues of the FR‐PP with MF‐PER is higher than that with PER, which leads to a better synergism. Highlights Melamine formaldehyde resins modified with pentaerythritol (MF‐PER) as a novel triazine charring agent was designed and synthesized. MF‐PER is synthesized by solid phase method and using hexahydroxymethyl melamine (HMM) instead of cyanuric chloride as raw material, so the emission of three wastes in its synthesis process is very little, only a small amount of formaldehyde and water are produced. MF‐PER has excellent synergistic fire retardancy with APP in polypropylene. The highly efficient and environmentally benign charring agent show great potential for developing more efficient and eco‐friendly IFR.