A vanillin‐derived flame retardant based on 2‐aminopyrimidine for enhanced flame retardancy and mechanical properties of epoxy resin

Abstract In order to give epoxy resin good flame retardance, a novel bio‐based flame retardant based on 2‐aminopyrimidine (referred to as VAD) was synthesized from renewable vanillin as one of the starting materials. Its structure was confirmed by NMR and mass spectra. The epoxy resins containing VAD were prepared by utilizing 4,4‐diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) as a co‐curing agent, and their flame‐retardant, mechanical and thermal properties and corresponding mechanisms were studied. VAD accelerated the cross‐linking reaction of DDM and E51 (diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A). 12.5 wt% VAD made the epoxy resin achieve UL‐94 V‐0 rating and its limited oxygen index (LOI) value increase from 22.4% to 32.3%. The cone calorimetric testing results revealed the decline in the values of total heat release (THR) and peak of heat release rate (pk‐HRR) and the obvious enhancement of residue yield. A certain amount of VAD enhanced the flame inhibition, charring and barrier effects, resulting in good flame retardance of the epoxy resin. Furthermore, the tensile strength, flexural strength and flexural modulus of the epoxy resin with 12.5 wt% loading of VAD were 6.5%, 14.9%, 15.2% higher than those of EP, indicating the strengthening effect of VAD. This work guarantees VAD to be a promising flame retardant for enhancing the fire retardancy of epoxy resin without compromising its mechanical properties.