Acrylonitrile (AN) has been free-radically polymerized, and copolymerized with a phosphorus-containing monomer to obtain copolymers with varying compositions. The recovered polymers, after purification and drying, were characterized by employing a variety of analytical techniques. These included solution state NMR (for compositional analyses), thermo-gravimetric runs (TGA: for evaluating the thermal stabilities) and pyrolysis combustion flow calorimetric evaluations (PCFC: for obtaining relevant combustion parameters). The chemical modification of AN polymers with phosphorus-containing units results in significant improvements in their flame retardance, as gauged from increased TGA char yields and other measured combustion parameters. Furthermore, the PCFC runs revealed strong correlations between P contents and other relevant combustion parameters. It is highly likely that the mechanism of flame retardation in these systems involves a significant condensed phase activity initiated by the precursors obtained through early thermal cracking of the phosphate groups within the copolymer chain structures.

Chemical modification of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with phosphate groups: Effects on flame retardance

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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