Thermal Stability and Flammability Studies of MXene-Organic Hybrid Polystyrene Nanocomposites. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Polystyrene (PS) is widely used in the plastics industry, but the application range of PS is limited due to its inherently high flammability. A variety of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have been reported to impart excellent flame retardancy to polymeric materials. In this study, a 2D nanomaterial MXene-organic hybrid (O-Ti3C2) was applied to PS as a nanofiller. Firstly, the MXene nanosheets were prepared by acid etching, intercalation, and delamination of bulk MAX (Ti3AlC2) material. These exfoliated MXene nanosheets were then functionalized using a cationic surfactant to improve the dispersibility in DMF. Even with a small loading of functionalized O-Ti3C2 (e.g., 2 wt%), the resulting PS nanocomposite (PS/O-Ti3C2) showed good thermal stability and lower flammability evidenced by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and pyrolysis-combustion flow calorimetry (PCFC). The peak heat release rate (pHRR) was significantly reduced by 32% compared to the neat PS sample. In addition, we observed that the temperature at pHRR (TpHRR) shifted to a higher temperature by 22 C. By comparing the TGA and PCFC results between the PS/MAX and different weight ratios of PS/O-Ti3C2 nanocomposites, the thermal stability and 2D thermal- and mass-transfer barrier effect of MXene-organic hybrid nanosheets were revealed to play essential roles in delaying the polymer degradation.

published proceedings

  • Polymers (Basel)

author list (cited authors)

  • Zhang, Z., Cao, H., Quan, Y., Ma, R., Pentzer, E. B., Green, M. J., & Wang, Q.

citation count

  • 11

complete list of authors

  • Zhang, Zhuoran||Cao, Huaixuan||Quan, Yufeng||Ma, Rong||Pentzer, Emily B||Green, Micah J||Wang, Qingsheng

publication date

  • March 2022

publisher