Latent heat absorption of alkali metal hydrates enables delayed ignition and improved flame retardancy of epoxy resin

In this work, alkali metal hydrates, barium hydroxide octahydrate (BHO) and sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT) were added into epoxy resin (EP) to prepare a series of flame-retardant EP composites. It showed that EP samples can pass the V-0 rating of UL-94 when the amount of hydrated salt exceeds 45 wt%. When the additional amount of SAT is 50 wt%, the LOI of the EP sample increases to as high as 39% compared to 19% of pure EP. In addition, the time to ignition (TTI) of EP with 50 wt% SAT was prolonged to 157 s from 63 s of pure EP, which can provide valuable time for fire escape. The peak heat release rate (PHRR) was reduced by 63.9% compared with that of pure EP (from 1392.4 kW/m2 to 502.18 kW/m2), which indicated that phase change heat absorption plays a crucial role in reducing fire hazards of EP.