Description of complementary actions of mineral and organic additives in thermoplastic polymer composites by Flame Retardancy Index

This work visualizes the complementary actions of organic and mineral additives in model thermoplastic polymer composites in terms of Flame Retardancy Index (FRI). Thermal and flame retardancy behaviors of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) composites containing calcium carbonate (CC) mineral and ammonium polyphosphate (APP) organic additives were studied varying composition of additives in the 80/20 EVA/(xCC + (20 - x)APP) composites with x denoting 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the onset temperature of composites and the remaining residue were increased by combination of APP and CC, while cone calorimetry results were indicative of a promising flame retardancy performance at a given composition of APP and CC. Based on FRI values, we made distinguished samples from flame retardancy performance viewpoint, where the best flame retardancy was obtained by combination of 15 wt% APP and 5 wt% CC, as reflected in FRI value of 3.08. By contrast, samples containing only APP or CC revealed low resistance against flame, as signaled by FRI values of 0.99 and 0.89, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was made on remaining residue collected at the end of cone calorimetry measurements. Moreover, Raman analysis confirmed barrier effect of flame retardancy for EVA/(5APP + 15CC) sample, featured by a higher graphitization level as well as a thicker yet more homogenous char layer. Mechanical behavior analysis of composites revealed an acceptable level of properties, particularly high elongation at break, which was almost independent of formulation. However, a minor loss in yield stress was observed, especially for EVA(10CC + 10APP) sample.