The Flame Retardant Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Composites with Boric Acid Modified ZSM-5 Synergists

Abstract

Abstract Cyclic olefin copolymer exhibits promising alternative of thermal insulation foam in building fields. However, it is challenging to improve COC flame retardant behavior due to macromolecular chain with carbon and hydrogen elements. Herein, we utilize boric acid modified ZSM-5 (BZ5) as synergist in order to achieve the intumescent flame retardant (IFR) COC composite. The surface morphology, distribution of flame retardants, flame retardancy and morphology and structure of carbon residue of the composite were studied by SEM, EDS, LOI, CCT and FTIR characterizations. With adding BZ5 as a synergist, the LOI value can reach up to 28.5%, which is much higher than that of 15.3% for neat COC. Char residue content increased from 0.97% to 19.7% with BZ5 as a synergist in the COC composite. According to SEM and FTIR results, dense microscopic carbon residue structure after boric acid modification. The study shows that the modification of boric acid with appropriate content can improve the flame retardancy of COC.