RETRACTED: Phenyl/vinyl polysilsesquioxane based ladder polymer as novel additive for vinyl ester resin: Fabrication, mechanical and flame-retardant properties

Abstract In this study, the novel ladder polymer (NLP) was syntheriszed and used as flame-reatardant additive for vinyl ester resin (VER). Two kinds of silane coupling agent was ultilized for fabrication of nLP then its characteristics were confirmed with help of NMR, FTIR, X-ray diffractometry. The NLP based composites were fabricated at room temperature using the methyl ethyl keton peroxide as a starter. The mechanical properties, the compatibility, and flamability of obtained composites were studied. The experimental results indicated that the VER with presence of 20 wt% of NLP (S3 sample) have flexural strength, flexural modulus increased by195.6%, 260.6%, respectively. Moreover, this sample also exhibited the decreasing in total smoke release (TSR), and peak heat release rate (PHRR) was about 20.7%, and 52.2%, respectively. These results indicated that the NLP is the good candidate for simultaneous improvement of mechanical properties and flame retardant of VER.