In the pursuit of improved approaches to flame retarding polymers a wide variety of concerns must be addressed. The low cost of commodity polymers requires that the fire retardant (FR) approach be of low cost. This limits the solutions to theproblem primarily to additive type approaches. These additives must be easily processed with the polymer, must not excessively degrade the other performance properties, and must not create environmental problems in terms of recycling or disposal.Currently, some of the commonly used flame retardant approaches for polymers can reduce the thermal and mechanical properties of the polymer.Polymer-clay nancomposites are hybrid organic polymer inorganic layered materials with unique properties when compared to conventional filled polymers. The mechanical properties for nylon-6 clay nanocomposite, with clay mass fraction of 5 %, showexcellent improvement over those for the pure nylon-6. The nanocomposite exhibits a 40% higher tensile strength, 68% greater tensile modulus, 60% higher flexural strength, 126% increased flexural modulus, and comparable impact strengths. The heatdistortion temperature (HDT) is increased from 65°C to 152°C. Previously, we reported on the flammability properties of nylon-6 clay nanocomposites. Here, we will briefly review these results, present the results of radiative gasification experiments andreport on our initial studies of the flammability of intercalated polymer-clay nanocomposites prepared from polystyrene, PS, and polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride, PP-g-MA.
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