Surface Manipulation of Thermal-Exfoliated Hexagonal Boron Nitride with Polyaniline for Improving Thermal Stability and Fire Safety Performance of Polymeric Materials
Release time:
2018-11-09
In this article, the polyaniline
(PANI)/thermal-exfoliated hexagonal boron nitride (BNO) hierarchical
structure (PANI–BNO) was constructed via in situ deposition to improve
the dispersion and interfacial adhesion of boron nitride in
multi-aromatic polystyrene (PS) and polar thermoplastic polyurethane
(TPU). Because of the conjugated structure and polar groups in PANI, the
uniform dispersion and strong interfacial adhesion between PANI–BNO and
PS and TPU were achieved. Thermogravimetric analysis results showed
that the incorporation of PANI–BNO enhanced the thermal stability of PS
and TPU, i.e., the temperatures at both 5 and 50 wt % mass loss. In
addition, PANI with high charring ability also acted as a critical
component to generate a synergistic effect with BNO on reducing the fire
hazards of PS and TPU. This well-designed structure led to a remarkable
reduction of flammable decomposed products and CO and CO2yields. Meanwhile, a dramatic decrease in the real-time smoke density
and total smoke production was observed for PS and TPU nanocomposites
with 3 wt % PANI–BNO hybrids, respectively. The multiple synergistic
effects (synergistic dispersion, char formation, and barrier effect) are
believed to be the primary source for these enhanced properties of
polymer nanocomposites.
