Decomposition of Polyesters Influenced by Phosphorus-containing Substituents

摘要

Polyesters like poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) are widely used in everyday life, despite having the risk of being easily ignitable and providing high amounts of fuel load to fire. Thus, it is an important issue to reduce their flammability to lower the risks when exposed to fire. Although quite successful in these terms, halogen-containing flame retarding agents were restricted by the European Community (WEEE, RoHS) due to the emission of toxic smoke upon burning. Among others, phosphorus-containing substances are under investigation to replace halogen flame retardants [1-10]. Most of these components are salts or low molecular weight organics reducing as additive the mechanical properties of the matrix PBT or PET material,, respectively. Using polymeric flame retarding agents may improve the mechanical performance of the materials and may furthermore increase the flame retarding effect due to better homogeneity of the compound, although a correlation between homogeneity of a mixture and flame retardancy could not be clearly proven until yet.