Simultaneously enhanced mechanical properties and flame retardancy of UHMWPE with polydopamine-coated expandable graphite

Huaming Wang; Jingshi Cao; Fubin Luo; Changlin Cao; Qingrong Qian; Baoquan Huang; Liren Xiao; Qinghua Chen

doi:10.1039/c9ra02861g

Simultaneously enhanced mechanical properties and flame retardancy of UHMWPE with polydopamine-coated expandable graphite

RSC Adv. 2019 Jul 9;9(37):21371-21380. doi: 10.1039/c9ra02861g. eCollection 2019 Jul 5.

Authors

Huaming Wang^{1

2

3}, Jingshi Cao^{1

2

3}, Fubin Luo^{1

2

3}, Changlin Cao^{1

2

3}, Qingrong Qian^{1

2

3}, Baoquan Huang^{1

2

3}, Liren Xiao³, Qinghua Chen^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fujian Normal University China qrqian@fjnu.edu.cn cqhuar@fjnu.edu.cn.
² Fujian Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse China.
³ Engineering Research Center of Polymer Green Recycling of Ministry of Education Fuzhou 350007 China.

Abstract

The potential prospect of expandable graphite (EG) in the development of polymer composites is severely limited by required large additions and poor interface compatibility with the polymer. Inspired by mussels, polydopamine (PDA) can be used as an effective interface modifier for EG to prepare ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composites with superior mechanical properties and high flame retardancy. The surface of expandable graphite (EG) was coated with a thin adhesive PDA film through self-polymerization of dopamine. The modified expandable graphite (EG@PDA) was combined with APP to prepare UHMWPE flame retardant composites. Compared with UHMWPE/APP/EG (with 20 wt% APP/EG), UHMWPE/APP/EG@PDA (with 20 wt% APP/EG@PDA) gives a decrement by 16.7% in limiting oxygen index, 29.7% in the peak of the heat release rate, 20.4% in total heat release and 49.3% in total smoke release, with an increment by 37% in tensile strength and 67.9% in elongation at break, respectively. It is suggested that the presence of PDA as an interface modifier can greatly improve the interfacial compatibility between EG and UHMWPE. Moreover, it can lead to forming more char residue and reducing the release of smoke particulates during combustion of the composites.