Vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate copolymers - Part 2: Fire retardancy using phosphorus-containing additives and monomers

This study deals with the fire retardant performance of vinyl acetate (VA)/butyl acrylate (BA) copolymers using phosphorus compounds as additive or as co-monomer. First, VA/BA copolymer has been mixed with phosphorus additives from various sources: red phosphorus.. organo-phosphates, organo-phosphonate, inorganic phosphate and an intumescent system (ammonium polyphosphate and pentaerythritol). The incorporation of 5 wt.-% phosphorus leads to VA/BA copolymers with improved fire properties whatever the source of phosphorus used. The best performance is achieved with the intumescent system. Second, VA and BA monomers have been copolymerised with phosphorus monomers (phosphate and phosphonate). Both systems present fire retardancy of interest. The better performance is achieved using phosphonate. Both systems are assumed to work in the condensed phase. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.