Effect of a Phosphorus-Silicon Containing Flame Retardant on the Activation Energy in Thermal Degradation of Thiol-ene Composites

The thiol-ene (TE) polymerization systems have gained a lot of interests from industry and researchers in the last years. A phosphorus-silicon containing flame retardant DOPO-V was synthesized in this study, and the effect of DOPO-V on the flame retardancy of thiol ene was confirmed by cone calorimetry measurement. Moreover, the thermal stability of TE/DOPO-V (FRTE) composite was investigated by the thermogravimetric method under dynamic conditions (50-600 degrees C) in nitrogen atmosphere. Moreover, kinetic parameters were calculated by the Kissinger and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods. It was observed that the activation energy for the FRTE degradation was slightly higher than that of pure TE. This was attributed to the fact that DOPO-V could further react with the TE matrix to form a complex and stable phosphorus-silicon containing char layer. Thus, the flame retardancy of FRTE/DOPO-V was higher than that of pure TE. By using both methods approximately equal values of activation energy were obtained.