Engineering MXene surface with POSS for reducing fire hazards of polystyrene with enhanced thermal stability

Bin Yu; Anthony Chun Yin Yuen; Xiaodong Xu; Zhen-Cheng Zhang; Wei Yang; Hongdian Lu; Bin Fei; Guan Heng Yeoh; Pingan Song; Hao Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123342

Engineering MXene surface with POSS for reducing fire hazards of polystyrene with enhanced thermal stability

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Jan 5:401:123342. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123342. Epub 2020 Jul 3.

Authors

Bin Yu¹, Anthony Chun Yin Yuen², Xiaodong Xu³, Zhen-Cheng Zhang⁴, Wei Yang⁵, Hongdian Lu⁴, Bin Fei⁶, Guan Heng Yeoh², Pingan Song⁷, Hao Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Future Materials, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia.
² School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
³ School of Engineering, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, PR China.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Hefei University, 99 Jinxiu Avenue, Hefei, Anhui, 230601, PR China.
⁵ School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia; Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Hefei University, 99 Jinxiu Avenue, Hefei, Anhui, 230601, PR China. Electronic address: yangwei@hfuu.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Textiles & Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong. Electronic address: bin.fei@polyu.edu.hk.
⁷ Centre for Future Materials, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia. Electronic address: songyu19800919@163.com.

PMID: 32763676
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123342

Abstract

High-performance MXene-based polymer nanocomposites are highly desirable for diverse industry applications due to their exceptional mechanical, thermal and other properties. Nevertheless, it remains an intractable challenge to create flame retardant polymer/MXene nanocomposites due to the difficulty to achieve uniform dispersion of MXenes. Here, we reported a facile strategy for the surface manipulation of two-dimensional titanium carbide nanosheets (Ti₃C₂T_x) with 3-aminopropylheptaisobutyl-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (AP-POSS) (POSS-Ti₃C₂T_x) through electrostatic interactions. The POSS-Ti₃C₂T_x is steadily dispersed in many polar solvents. Upon incorporated into polystyrene (PS), the combined effect of AP-POSS and MXene makes the resultant PS nanocomposites exhibit significantly improved thermal and thermoxidative stability, e.g. 22 °C and 39 °C increases in the temperature at 5 wt% mass loss under nitrogen and air, respectively. Meanwhile, a 39.1 % reduction in the peak heat release rate, a respective 54.4 % and 35.6 % reduction in the peak CO production rate and the peak CO₂ production rate was achieved, which are superior to those of its own and previous counterparts. This outstanding fire safety is attributed to the combination of adsorption, catalytic and barrier effects of POSS-Ti₃C₂T_x. Hence, as-designed functionalized MXenes can be effectively applied in PS to formulate multifunctional polymer nanocomposites attractive for wide potential applications.

Keywords: Fire safety; MXene; Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane; Polystyrene; Surface manipulation; Thermal stability.