A rare‐earth‐based nano‐flame retardant with 2D MXene for improving fire safety and mechanical property of thermoplastic polyurethane composites

Abstract A kind of rare earth flame retardant, two‐dimensional lamellar compounds (MXene) loading with cerium phosphate nanorod, MXene@CePO 4 (CMX) was prepared by hydrothermal and electrostatic adsorption methods. It was then applied in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). With the 3 wt% addition of CMX improving the mass rate of residual char from 4.42 wt% to 11.33 wt% compared to pristine TPU, there were reductions of 53.8%, 12.3%, and 24.7% in peak heat release rate (pHRR), total heat release (THR), and smoke density maximum (Ds max), respectively. Moreover, the TPU/CMX composites were shown to have superior mechanical properties compared with pristine TPU. For TPU/CMX‐3.0, there was a visible improvement in tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EB) of 12.5% and 54.1% respectively, compared to pure TPU. The analysis of the flame retardancy mechanism of TPU/CMX shows that CMX plays an effective role in quenching free radicals in the gas phase and promotes char formation of TPU in the condense phase. Therefore, this paper offers a new solution for designing multifunctional rare earth flame retardants that are applied in TPU, thereby extending its application in industries and daily life.