Preparation and physical properties of flame retardant acrylic resin containing nano-sized aluminum hydroxide

Poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) shows high strength and transparency but is a flammable material. In this study, the surface of aluminum hydroxide was modified with methacrylate containing phosphoric acid moieties before dispersion in MMA, and organic-inorganic nano-hybrid materials were obtained by bulk polymerization in the presence of the surface-modified aluminum hydroxide. The resulting hybrid materials retained the high transparency of PMMA, with transparency values similar to that of pure PMMA. Moreover, the flame resistance of the hybrid materials was improved in comparison with that of pure PMMA, with depression of the horizontal burning rate becoming a maximum at an inorganic content of 3 wt%. These results suggest that the use of aluminum hydroxide surface-modified with phosphoric acid groups is an efficient method for obtaining good performance fire-resistant polymer materials. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.