Investigation of the Flame-Retardant and Mechanical Properties of Bamboo Fiber-Reinforced Polypropylene Composites with Melamine Pyrophosphate and Aluminum Hypophosphite Addition

Abstract

To improve the flame-retardant performance of bamboo fiber (BF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites, melamine pyrophosphate (MPP) and aluminum hypophosphite (AP) at a constant mass ratio of 2:1 were added. The influence of the MPP/AP mass fraction on the mechanical and flame-retardant properties of the BF reinforced PP composites were evaluated by mechanical testing, limiting oxygen index (LOI) and cone calorimetry. Mechanical tests demonstrate that tensile properties of BF/PP decreased with the increase of MPP/AP mass fraction, while flexural properties of composites exhibited very different tendencies. Both flexural strength and modulus increased slightly with the addition of MPP/AP at first, and then decreased significantly after a relatively high content of MPP/AP was loaded. This was due to the poor interfacial compatibility between PP and MPP/AP. The flame retardancy of BF/PP composites has been greatly improved. When 30% MPP/AP was loaded into the composites, the LOI increased to 27.2%, which was 42.4% higher than that of the composite without flame retardant addition. Cone calorimetry results indicated that MPP/AP worked in both gas and condensed phases during the combustion process. Peak heat release rate, total smoke production and mass loss of the composites were significantly reduced because of the addition of MPP/AP.