The flame retardant cyclic olefin copolymer composites with boric acid modified ZSM-5 synergists

Abstract

Cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) is recognized as a prospective material for thermal insulation foam in the construction industry. Nonetheless, enhancing its flame retardancy is problematic due to the carbon and hydrogen elements present in its macromolecular chains. In this study, we introduce a boric acid-modified zeolite socony mobil No. 5 (BZ5) as a synergist to develop an intumescent flame retardant (IFR) COC composite. We employed scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), the limiting oxygen index (LOI), cone calorimetry testing (CCT), and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to investigate the composite's surface morphology, distribution of flame retardants, and the characteristics of the carbon residue's structure and morphology. The incorporation of BZ5 as a synergist significantly improved the LOI value to a maximum of 28.5%, surpassing the 15.3% observed in the unmodified COC. Additionally, the char residue content increased from 0.97% to 19.7% with BZ5 in the COC composite. SEM and FTIR analyses revealed a denser microscopic carbon residue structure post-boron modification. Our findings indicate that an appropriate content of boric acid modification effectively enhances the flame retardancy of COC.