In situ synthesis of a MoS2/CoOOH hybrid by a facile wet chemical method and the catalytic oxidation of CO in epoxy resin during decomposition

In this work, a new MoS2/CoOOH hybrid material was successfully synthesized by a facile wet chemical method, and its structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. A morphological study showed that, due to the different sizes of the two components, the resulting MoS2/CoOOH hybrid displayed a disordered structure in which large MoS2 sheets had many independent and separate CoOOH nanoplatelets on the surface. The catalytic oxidation effect of MoS2/CoOOH hybrids on the thermal decomposition of epoxy resin was studied by thermogravimetric analysis-infrared spectrometry. It was found that the amount of organic volatiles of epoxy resin significantly decreased and nonflammable CO2 was generated after incorporating MoS2/CoOOH hybrids, which implied the reduced toxicity of the volatiles and obvious smoke suppression. Meanwhile, the incorporation of MoS2/CoOOH hybrids also resulted in a remarkable increase in the char residue of the epoxy composite, indicating the efficient catalytic carbonization of MoS2/CoOOH hybrids. Based on the X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared results of the char residue, the possible mechanism of the reduced fire hazards and high char formation of the epoxy composites was proposed as the combination of the adsorption and synergistic catalytic effect of the MoS2/CoOOH catalyst, which would provide promising applications in the development of fire safety polymer materials.