Titanate Nanotubes Decorated Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites: Preparation, Flame Retardancy, and Photodegradation

Abstract

Most polymers exhibit high flammability and poor degradability, which restrict their applications and causes serious environmental problem like “white pollution.” Thus, titanate nanotubes (TNTs) were adopted to decorate graphene oxide (GO) by a facile solution method to afford TNTs/GO nanocomposites with potential in improving the flame retardancy and photodegradability of flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Results show that the as-prepared TNTs/GO can effectively improve the thermal stability and flame retardancy than TNTs and GO, especially, the peak heat release rate and total heat release were reduced by 20 and 29% with only 2.5 wt.% loading. And more, the TNTs/GO also improve the photodegradability of PVC compared with the neat PVC. The reasons can be attributed to synergistic flame-retardant and photocatalytic effects between TNTs and GO. The present research could contribute to paving a feasible pathway to constructing polymer-matrix composites with desired flame retardancy and photodegradability, thereby adding to the elimination of white pollution caused by polymers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-017-2211-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Fabrication of Fullerene Anchored Reduced Graphene Oxide Hybrids and Their Synergistic Reinforcement on the Flame Retardancy of Epoxy Resin

“…For example, Gilman et al incorporated the surfactant modified montmorillonite into polypropylene graft maleic anhydride (PPgMA) by melt blending, and the resultant PPgMA-MMT (4 wt%) nanocomposite had a 75% lower PHRR and 49% lower THR than the pure PPgMA, respectively only at the addition of 4 wt%, indicating the significant improvement on flame retardancy [ 7 ]. Also, the similar remarkable improvements also were observed in poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA)/carbon nanotube and polypropylene (PP)/graphene nanocomposites [ 8 – 11 ] . These nanofillers also had been applied to modify thermosetting resins for improving their flame retardancy [ 12 , 13 ].…”

Superior flame retardancy and smoke suppression of poly (vinyl chloride) composites with iron/tin‐doped bismuth oxychloride

“…PVC composites were prepared by the method reported in our previous research. 29 PVC/BiOCl composite with the loading of 3% (mass fraction) was prepared as a representative for characterization as well as flame retardant performance evaluation. The test samples were prepared as follows: BiOCl (5.1 g), stearic acid (0.96 g), lead stearate (0.48 g), calcium stearate (0.48 g), and dioctyl phthalate (DOP; 48 g) were mixed with PVC powder (120 g) on a S(X) K-160 rubber and plastics mixing mill (Shanghai Light Industry Machinery Company Ltd.; Shanghai, China) at 110 C (milling for 10 min).…”

An Overview of the Flame Retardants for Poly(vinyl chloride): Recent States and Perspective†

“…[ 111 ] Then titanate nanotubes (TNTs) were adopted to decorate graphene oxide to afford TNTs/GO nanocomposites by the same group. [ 109 ] The LOI value of PVC nanocomposite containing 2.5 wt% of TNTs/GO increased from 25.8% to 27.4% in comparison with that of pure one. Likewise, the PHRR and THR of the nanocomposite were reduced by 20% and 29% in the presence of TNTs/GO.…”