A novel phytic acid based flame retardant to improve flame retardancy, hydrophobicity and mechanical properties of linear low‐density polyethylene

Abstract

AbstractExploiting high phosphorus content of phytic acid, it was grafted onto magnesium hydroxide (MH) by neutralization reaction to obtain MGPA, a flame retardant. A current study investigated the effect of MGPA on hydrophobicity, flame retardancy, and mechanical properties of MGPA‐linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) composites. The LLDPE composite with 50 parts of MGPA has the better flame retardancy and thermal stability with a limiting oxygen index of 23.3%, which is higher than that of neat LLDPE (17%). In addition, MGPA could effectively promoted LLDPE to form a continuous and compact char residue during combustion, which reduce the peak of heat release rate and total smoke production value of LLDPE composite by 70% and 36%, respectively, and the char residue rate increase to 67.5%. Furthermore, the maximum of loss‐rate showed by LLDPE composite with MGPA reduce to 1.25%/min while the value of LLDPE composite with MH is 1.8%/min. Meanwhile, the LLDPE composite with MGPA show remarkable elongation at break and hydrophobicity, which are 398% and 99°, respectively. In addition, this study presents a substantial flame retardancy and interfacial compatibility of MGPA for extending the applications of flame‐retardant LLDPE composites.