Facile construction of bio-based organic–inorganic integrated magnesium hydroxide rod-crystal: The formation of a dual barrier to enhance fire safety and smoke suppression of epoxy resin

Abstract

Epoxy resin (EP) is a widely utilized polymer, but it exhibits high flammability. With the growing emphasis on environment friendliness and sustainability, the development of environmentally friendly EP flame-retardant structure has become a major research focus. Consequently, a bio-based organic–inorganic integrated magnesium hydroxide rod-crystal (RMH@AP-Fe) flame retardant, was constructed via a facile and green supramolecular assembly approach. The RMH@AP-Fe endows effective fire safety performance for EP composites. Specifically, as compared to pure EP, the peak heat release rate, peak smoke release rate, and peak CO content of EP/20RMH@AP-Fe decreases by 37.2 %, 37.0 %, and 50.9 %, respectively. Subsequently, the flame-retardant mechanisms of RMH@AP-Fe in both the gaseous phase and condensed phase applied in EP were further explored. This study presents a new and viable approach for designing green, fire safety, and smoke suppression EP composites.